A Japan Airlines flight has caught fire on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday amid reports of a collision with a coastguard plane. Miraculously, all 367 passengers and 12 crew were evacuated.
Five out of the six crew members of the small plane are reportedly dead while the captain escaped.
Live footage showed the Japan Airlines Airbus A350 aircraft bursting into flames as it skidded down the tarmac after landing. It was later overwhelmed by the blaze despite feverish efforts by rescue crews to control the fire.
Footage and images shared on social media showed passengers shouting inside the smoke-filled cabin and running across the tarmac away from the blaze.
The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan’s west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day, killing at least 48 people.
ValidViewNetwork had earlier reported a devastating earthquake that occured in Japan.
A spokesperson at Japan Airlines said its aircraft had departed from Shin-Chitose airport on the northern island of Hokkaido.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed relevant agencies to coordinate to assess the damage swiftly and provide information to the public, according to his office.
Haneda has closed all runways following the incident, a spokesperson for the airport said.
According to Roger Whitefield, a former pilot, getting all the passengers out is a miracle.
“We have just witnessed a miracle,” the former commercial pilot has told Sky News.
“The way they got all those passengers off that aeroplane is almost beyond belief,” Roger Whitefield says.
Images show smoke pouring out of one of the rear doors, meaning the visibility on the plane “must have been nil”.
“For the crew to get all the passengers out, it’s a miracle. There’s no two ways about it,” he adds.
Swede Anton Deibe, 17, who was a passenger on the Japan Airlines plane, has described what happened.
“The entire cabin was filled with smoke within a few minutes,” he told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
“We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them.
“The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was a hell. We have no idea where we are going so we just run out into the field. It was chaos.”
Mr Deibe said he was traveling with his parents and sister.
