All 379 passengers on board the Airbus that caught fire have been evacuated after a collision at Tokyo airport. Five people on board a Coast Guard plane were killed.
All 379 passengers and crew members of the Airbus 350 that crashed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport were able to leave the plane safely. This was announced by the Japanese airline Japan Airlines. Japanese television had previously shown images showing passengers leaving the burning plane via emergency slides. Burning debris lay on the tarmac.
The Airbus caught fire during the landing approach.
Collision with Coast Guard aircraft
The JAL plane coming from Hokkaido in northern Japan caught fire on the runway and burned out completely. As Japanese media report, the passenger plane collided with a smaller Japanese Coast Guard aircraft. An explosive fireball could be seen.
There are said to have been six people on board the coast guard plane. The pilot was seriously injured, it was said. The five other people on board were killed in the collision. The plane was on its way to Niigata Regional Airport to bring relief supplies to the earthquake-hit region.
Cause of accident still unclear
Nothing is yet known about the cause of the accident. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and all authorities to investigate the incident and clarify how this collision could have occurred. Tokyo Haneda Airport is one of the busiest airports in Japan. There was a lot of New Year’s activity. After the incident, all runways were closed.
Bernd Musch-Borowska, ARD Tokyo, tagesschau, January 2nd, 2024 12:53 p.m
With information from Bernd Musch-Borowska, ARD Studio Tokyo