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Five people have been killed in an aircraft accident in Japan after a passenger plane with 379 people on board was in a collision with a coast guard plane and caught fire at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
All 367 passengers and 12 crew from the Japan Airlines flight managed to flee via emergency slides, according to the airline, after video footage showed the plane skidding along a runway with flames apparently pouring from under its wings.
The passenger plane, an Airbus A350-900, collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft that had six people on board. Five out of the six-strong crew were killed, Tokyo police said, while the coast guard said the captain of the aircraft had escaped.
Passengers aboard the JAL plane, who were interviewed by TV news crews about two hours after the incident, said they thought the plane had landed safely when they suddenly saw flames outside the windows and smoke filling the cabin.
“We thought we weren’t going to make it,” said one woman travelling with a small child.
The Japan Airlines flight, which arrived from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, was later seen completely engulfed in flames, with emergency services battling to control the blaze.
Haneda airport, which is Japan’s busiest and handles 490 flights per day, was closed after the incident.
Officials at the Japan Coast Guard and a spokesperson for JAL said that the collision appeared to have taken place on the runway itself, but footage from public broadcaster NHK appeared to show the JAL flight already in trouble as it neared the ground.
Mobile phone footage shared on social media and appearing to have been shot by passengers aboard the JAL flight showed the cabin filling with smoke as the plane came to a halt on the runway.
The JGC said it was investigating the cause of the accident.
Japanese media reported that the JCG flight had been preparing to fly with a cargo of emergency supplies to Niigata, to provide relief for the region affected by Monday’s earthquake.
The quake, which triggered a series of major tsunami warnings along Japan’s western coast and caused a large number of fires, landslides and building collapses, has claimed at least 48 lives. Efforts continue to search for survivors.