Five people were killed Tuesday when a Japan Airlines passenger jet collided with a coast guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, local authorities said.
The deceased were all on board the coast guard aircraft, Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported, citing police, while all 379 passengers and crew on board the commercial Airbus A350 managed to escape after the plane caught fire and skidded down the runway after landing. The Japan Airlines jet was soon completely engulfed by flames.
Yoshinori Yanagishima, a spokesperson with the Japanese coast guard, earlier said the pilot of the agency’s Bombardier Dash-8 plane managed to evacuate and contact officials, according to the Associated Press. NHK reported that the coast guard pilot was severely injured.
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NHK broadcast images showing the Japan Airlines jet bursting into flames shortly after landing. Dramatic video footage filmed inside the aircraft and shared on social media appears to capture passengers shouting and preparing to flee the smoke-filled cabin.
Jonas Deibe, a Swede who was on board the flight with his family, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that the cabin was filled with smoke within minutes of the fire starting. “We threw ourselves down on the floor,” he said. “Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them.” Deibe’s 17-year-old son, Anton, added: “We have no idea where we are going so we just run out into the field. It was chaos.”
A Japan Airlines spokesperson said its flight 516 had departed from Sapporo’s Shin-Chitose airport on the northern island of Hokkaido, while the coast guard said its aircraft involved in the collision was heading to Japan’s west coast to deliver aid to people affected by the earthquakes on New Year’s Day. As of Tuesday, at least 48 people are known to have been killed in the natural disaster.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has ordered relevant authorities to quickly assess the damage and update the public about the incident, according to his office. Reuters reported that a spokesperson for Haneda Airport said all of its runways have been closed after the incident.
The 2-year-old passenger aircraft’s destruction is the first ever hull loss of an Airbus A350, according to Simple Flying. The aircraft type first entered service in early 2015 with Qatar Airways.
The collision comes after a spike in close calls between planes at airports in the U.S. last year. The Federal Aviation Administration identified 23 of the most serious close calls in the fiscal year ending Oct. 1, a major increase on the 16 recorded the previous year. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told a Senate panel in November the surge was a “clear warning sign” that the aviation system was under stress.
