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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 3 January 2024

Planes collide and catch fire at Japan's busy Haneda airport, killing 5

By FOSTER KLUG and MARI at JAL, said that the airline's was afraid she might not get
YAMAGUCHI understanding is that the JAL off the plane alive.
Associated Press flight had received permis- All passengers and crew
TOKYO (AP) — A large pas- sion to land from aviation members slid down the es-
senger plane and a Japa- control officials. cape chutes within 20 min-
nese coast guard aircraft Police are expected to in- utes from the landing and
collided on the runway vestigate the accident on survived. Some passengers
at Tokyo's Haneda Airport suspicion of professional told media interviews that
on Tuesday and burst into negligence, NHK television they felt relieved only after
flames, killing five people reported. reaching a grassy area be-
aboard the coast guard Coast guard spokesperson yond the tarmac.
plane, officials said. Yoshinori Yanagishima said JAL said four passengers
All 379 people on Japan its Bombardier Dash-8 plane, were taken to a medical
Airlines flight JAL-516 got which is based at Haneda, facility, and that the airline
out safely before the Airbus had been due to head to Ni- is checking for injuries. NHK
A350 was fully engulfed in igata to deliver relief goods said 14 other people were In this image made from video, a Japan Airlines plane is on fire
flames, Transport Minister to residents affected by a injured. on the runway of Haneda airport on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024 in
Tetsuo Saito confirmed. deadly earthquake in the re- The transport minister said Tokyo, Japan.
The pilot of the coast guard's gion on Monday. The turbo- officials were doing their ut- Associated Press
Bombardier Dash-8 plane prop Dash-8 is widely used most to prevent any delays Haneda is the busier of two parts of the city.
escaped but the five crew on short-haul and commuter in the delivery of relief goods major airports serving the The twin-engine, twin-aisle
members died, Saito said. flights. and other operations for the Japanese capital, with many A350 is used by a number
The aircraft was preparing The coast guard pilot re- disaster-hit region. Transport international and transconti- of long-haul international
to take off to deliver aid to ported to his base that his officials said the airport's nental flights. It is particularly carriers. More than 570 of
an area affected by a major aircraft exploded after col- three other runways had favored by business travelers the aircraft are in operation,
earthquake on Monday, of- liding with the commercial reopened. due to its proximity to central according to Airbus.q
ficials said. plane, Vice Commander Yo-
Television footage showed shio Seguchi told reporters.
an orange fireball erupt- Shigenori Hiraoka, head of
ing from the Japan Airlines the Transport Ministry Civil
plane as it collided with the Aviation Bureau, said the
coast guard aircraft while collision occurred when the
landing, and the airliner then JAL plane landed on one
spewed smoke from its side of Haneda's four runways
as it continued down the where the coast guard air-
runway. Within 20 minutes, craft was preparing to take
all passengers and crew off. Transport safety officials
members slid down emer- were analyzing communi-
gency chutes to get away. cation between aviation
As firefighters tried to put control officials and the
out the blaze with streams two aircraft and planned
of water, the area around to interview JAL officials to
the plane's wing caught fire. determine what led to the
The flames spread through- collision.
out the plane, which eventu- Hiraoka praised JAL for "tak-
ally collapsed. The fire was ing appropriate procedures"
put out about six hours later. to safely evacuate all pas-
Tuesday's accident was the sengers and crew members.
first time that an Airbus A350, Swede Anton Deibe, 17, a
among the industry's new- passenger on the Japan
est large passenger planes, Airlines plane, told Swed-
was severely damaged. It ish newspaper Aftonbladet
entered commercial service that "the entire cabin was
in 2015. Airbus in a statement filled with smoke within a
said it was sending special- few minutes. We threw our-
ists to help Japanese and selves down on the floor.
French authorities and that Then the emergency doors
the plane was delivered to were opened and we threw
Japan Airlines in late 2021. ourselves at them.
The A350 had flown from "The smoke in the cabin
Shin Chitose airport near the stung like hell. It was a hell.
city of Sapporo, the trans- We have no idea where we
port minister said. are going so we just run out
JAL Managing Executive into the field. It was chaos,"
Officer Tadayuki Tsutsumi Deibe added.
told a news conference Another passenger told NHK
late Tuesday that the A350 television that cabin atten-
was making a "normal entry dants were calm and told
and landing" on the runway, everyone to leave their bag-
without specifying how it col- gage behind, then all lights
lided with the coast guard went off and the tempera-
plane. Noriyuki Aoki, also a ture inside the cabin started
managing executive officer rising. The passenger said she