TOKYO — A passenger plane burst into flames as it landed at a Tokyo airport Tuesday, after a collision with a coast guard aircraft that killed five people, officials said.
All 379 passengers and crew members made it out of the Japan Airlines plane, Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito said at a news conference. The coast guard pilot escaped, but five crew members were killed, he added.
The coast guard aircraft was flying earthquake relief to Niigata prefecture on the country’s west coast after a series of strong tremors killed at least 55 people and left widespread damage, Saito said. There was no immediate information about the cause of the accident, he added.
Dramatic footage from the Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed plumes of orange fire and black smoke engulfing the passenger jet as it landed at Haneda Airport in the country’s capital.
Video showed the plane’s side and areas around the wing on fire as it taxied on the runway, before the fire spread to the cabin and rescue crews rushed to the tarmac. A local fire department deployed at least 70 firetrucks and other vehicles to extinguish the fire, NHK added.
The passenger plane had entered the airport’s runway and then crashed into the coast guard plane on the runway, said Shigenori Hiraoka, the director general of the ministry’s civil aviation bureau.
The Transport Safety Board will investigate immediately, he said at a joint news conference with coast guard officials. French accident investigators are also headed to the scene, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety
A passenger on the Japan Airlines plane described how the cabin was engulfed in smoke within minutes.
Anton Deibe, 17, of Sweden, told NBC News that the plane was about to land when he looked to his left and saw “flames all over the windows.”
“The plane starts to shake and all the lights turn dark and everyone starts screaming in Japanese, and I can’t understand anything,” said Deibe, who was traveling with his parents and sister. “My first thought was that maybe we had hit a bird; I had no clue. But the plane continued to shake, and then we touched down on the ground. And it felt like we’d like slide.”
“The black smoke started to infiltrate the cabin … and you had a hard time breathing. So I took my hoodie, the only piece of equipment I still have left — everything else is burned down — and covered my face,” he said. “Then, after a while, they finally they opened the doors, and everyone, they ran out and then you had to jump out of the plane.”
