An aerial photo shows Japan Airlines flight 516 burnt on the runway at Haneda Airport in Ota Ward, Tokyo on Jan. 3, 2024.Photo:The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images
The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images
Harrowing stories have started to emerge from some of the 379 individuals onthe Japan Airlines plane that collided with a Coast Guard aircrafton a Tokyo runway, bursting into flames.
“Everyone was screaming from the initial impact and then everything got eerily quiet because everyone was confused,” said passenger Joseph Hayashi, perThe Wall Street Journal.
The incident occurred on Tuesday after JAL flight 516 struck the Coast Guard plane carrying resources for Japan’s earthquake relief efforts, according toCNNand theBBC.
- All 379 crew members and passengers onboard the JAL flight were safely evacuated after the aircraft began to burn at 5:47 p.m. local time (3:47 a.m. ET), the outlets reported. However, five out of six people onboard the Coast Guard plane died in the collision, according toReuters. The surviving pilot was severely injured and was being treated in a Tokyo hospital, reported the BBC.
Police and officials inspect the wreckage of Japan Airlines aircraft JAL Flight 516 on the tarmac of Tokyo Haneda Airport on January 3, 2024, in Tokyo.David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty
David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty
Passenger Anton Deibe, told Swedish newspaperAftonbladetthat the cabin was consumed with smoke within minutes, perFox News. “We threw ourselves down on the floor,” Deibe said. “Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them. The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was hell. We have no idea where we are going so we just run out into the field. It was chaos."
Speaking withSkyNews, William Manzione said he and his family were able to go down the slide during the evacuation, and felt they dodged “a really big bullet.”
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“There was a huge impact and I looked my wife in the eyes and said ‘something is absolutely not right,” he recalled to the outlet about the plane’s landing.
Another passenger toldReutersthat “it was a miracle” everybody was able to deplane so quickly, adding, “we could have died if we were late.”
Rescue crews work at the site where a Japan coast guard aircraft collided with a Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger plane on the tarmac at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda on January 2, 2024.RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty
“I don’t see a single passenger on the ground, in any of the videos I’ve seen, that has got their luggage with them,” said Professor Ed Galea, director of the fire safety engineering group at London’s University of Greenwich. “If people tried to take their cabin luggage, that’s really dangerous because they would slow down the evacuation.”
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Japan Airlines wrote: “Detailed information and the cause of the accident are still under investigation, and JAL is fully cooperating with the authorities. What we can say as of now is that after acknowledging and repeating the landing clearance from ATC [air traffic control], the crew performed the appropriate approach and landing procedure in accordance with normally prescribed procedures.”
Japan’s Transport Ministry claimed that the Coast Guard aircraft was not cleared for takeoff,USA Todayreported, although the captain of the Coast Guard plane claimed he did obtain permission to take off, according toBusiness Insider, citing Japanese news media.
Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito said to reporters, perReuters: “The transport ministry is submitting objective material and will fully cooperate with the … investigation to ensure we work together to take all possible safety measures to prevent a recurrence.”
source: people.com
