According to media reports, a Japan Airlines plane caught fire after colliding with a Coast Guard plane on the runway at Tokyo-Haneda airport today. All 367 passengers were safely evacuated, news agency AFP reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Images on broadcaster NHK showed the Airbus plane moving briskly along the runway before an enormous explosion of orange flames shot from beneath and behind it. The airline said it believed the passenger plane, JAL flight 516, flying from Shin-Chitose in Hokkaido to Haneda, hit a coast guard aircraft. The pilot of the Coast Guard plane has escaped and is unharmed, but five other crew members are still unaccounted for.
The incident occurred just after the plane landed. The plane reportedly hit the Coast Guard aircraft as it descended the runway. Footage later showed the wing and the entire plane were engulfed in flames. The blaze was extinguished by several fire engines that arrived on the scene. The airport is one of the busiest in the country, and many people travel there for the New Year holidays. It has not seen a severe commercial plane accident in decades.
The airline was unable to provide further information. A spokesperson for the company told NHK, however, that all its passengers could escape the plane safely. The spokesperson also said they were unsure whether the aircraft had crashed with the coast guard plane but that there was a possibility of a collision between the two planes.
A Coast Guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said they were “checking details” about a possible collision between the planes. The official told NHK that it was unclear if the Coast Guard plane had collided with the JAL flight on the runway but that they were confident their MA-722 Coast Guard aircraft had been involved in the fire. Television footage showed flames coming out of the plane’s windows and its nose on the ground as rescue workers sprayed it with water hoses. There was also burning debris on the runway. The plane had just arrived from Sapporo in northern Hokkaido. The Coast Guard plane was headed to help with earthquake relief efforts in central Japan. Five of its six crew members are unaccounted for. The other escaped unharmed. There was no word on the condition of the Coast Guard plane.
