All 379 people are safe – including passengers (367) and crew (12) – who were on board a plane of the Japanese company Japan Airlines (JAL) which landed on its belly due to a landing gear failure. Videos released by passengers of flight 516 which departed from Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido, show first the sparks flying from the Airbus skidding on the runway and then the people getting off the plane surrounded by smoke. Although the cause of the fire is not yet known, the plane may have started burning after a collision with a Japanese coast guard aircraft that had six people on board. Four people on board the Coast Guard aircraft have been confirmed dead collided with the Japan Airlines passenger plane at Haneda Airport in Japan. The Guardian reports it. One person is seriously injured. There were a total of six people on board the Coast Guard aircraft. A coast guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said they were “checking the details.” «It is unclear whether there was a collision. But it is certain that our plane is involved”, he told AFP. Television footage showed flames shooting out of the windows and the nose of the plane on the ground. More than 70 fire engines were deployed, NHK TV reported.
An investigation has been launched
The Japanese Ministry of Transport has ordered the temporary closure of Haneda Airport following the collision between the Japan Airlines plane, carrying nearly 400 passengers, and a Coast Guard aircraft. Real-time images from public broadcaster NHK show the carrier still engulfed in flames on the landing strip, and the water cannons used by the 70 fire trucks deployed for the emergency. Government authorities have launched an internal investigation to establish the causes of the accident. The last airline disaster in Japan occurred in 1985, when a Japan Airlines jumbo jet taking off from Tokyo and heading to Osaka crashed in Gunma Prefecture, killing all 520 people on board. It is one of the major disasters of modern civil aviation.
Prime Minister Kishida asks for the damages to be ascertained
“The authorities must quickly ascertain the damage”, is the appeal of the Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in the first reactions to the collision between two aircraft at Tokyo airport. In a post on The BBC reports it.