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French investigators dispatched to the scene of the tragedy
A team of experts from the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) for civil aviation is due to arrive in Japan on Wednesday to participate in the investigation into the ground collision of a Japan Airlines Airbus with a plane of the Japanese Coast Guard, we learned from the organization on Tuesday. The French BEA participates in the technical, so-called safety, investigation for aircraft abroad, particularly when it acts as the competent authority of the country where the aircraft was built.
The A350 is produced in Toulouse, in the southwest of France. Japan Airlines has 16 copies.
All domestic airport flights canceled
All domestic flights from Tokyo-Haneda (departures and arrivals) were canceled Tuesday evening, according to the airport website. However, most international flights were operated. Tokyo-Haneda is one of the Japanese capital’s two international airports and one of the busiest in the world. However, authorities planned to resume all flights as soon as possible due to the busy air traffic period after the New Year, according to a Transport Ministry official.
The reason for the collision still unknown
The reason for the collision is still unknown. “We are not yet able to explain the cause” of the accident, said Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito.
“These employees had a high sense of their mission”: tribute to deceased coast guards
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida paid tribute to the fallen coast guard. “These employees had a high sense of their mission and responsibility for the disaster areas, it is very regrettable,” he said, expressing his “respect” and “gratitude” towards them.
“I honestly thought I wouldn’t survive.”
Testimonies from passengers of the Airbus that caught fire are starting to pour in. “Smoke started filling the plane, and I thought ‘this could get really bad,'” a passenger told reporters at the airport. “An announcement said the doors in the back and middle couldn’t be opened. So everyone exited through the front,” he added. “It was hot inside the plane and I honestly thought I wouldn’t survive,” another survivor told NHK.
5 deaths confirmed in Japanese Army Dash-8 hit by Japan Airlines Airbus A350 at Tokyo-Haneda
Five of the six occupants of the struck plane died after the aircraft collided on the ground with a Japan Airlines airliner, announced the Japanese Minister of Transport. “The commander (of the coast guard plane, editor’s note) was able to escape”, but the five other people on board “died”, declared Tetsuo Saito. All 379 passengers and crew members of the Japan Airlines plane JAL516 were able to evacuate the aircraft “safe and sound”, added the minister.
More than 70 fire engines deployed on Tokyo airport runway
Debris also littered the runway and more than 70 fire engines were deployed on site, according to NHK.
8 children among the 367 passengers on the Japanese plane
Among the passengers were eight children, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo.
A surviving passenger testifies on X
“Everyone is safe, they are taking us to the terminal”
Plane accidents are very rare in Japan
Accidents involving airliners are extremely rare in Japan. The most serious of these occurred in 1985, when a Japan Airlines plane crashed between Tokyo and Osaka, killing 520 people, one of the worst aviation disasters in the world.
The 5 crew members of the Dash 8 are missing, one person is believed to have survived
The personnel of the Dash 8 which collided with the Airbus are missing.
A collision with a Dash 8 may have caused the explosion
According to Japanese television, the Airbus hit a Coast Guard Dash 8 during its landing.
“It is not clear whether there was a collision or not. But what is certain is that our plane was involved,” a coastguard official at the airport told AFP. Tokyo-Haneda.
The plane on fire is a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 which was operating flight JL516 from Shin-Chitose airport near Sapporo in Japan.
The A350-900 was delivered 2 years ago.
All passengers were evacuated
An airline spokesperson told NHK that the plane’s 367 passengers and 12 crew members were evacuated.
What happened at Tokyo airport?
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Japan: a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 is on fire on the runway at Tokyo-Haneda airport after colliding with another aircraft