Japan Airline plane engulfs in flames at Tokyo airport
TOKYO: A Japan Airlines jet was engulfed in flames at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday after a possible collision with a Coast Guard aircraft, with the airline saying that all 379 passengers and crew had been safely evacuated.
Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the aircraft erupt in flames as it skidded down the tarmac despite feverish efforts by rescue crews to control the blaze.
The Coast Guard said it was investigating the possibility that one of its aircraft collided with the passenger jet. Five out of the six crew of the coast guard aircraft are unaccounted for, while one escaped, public broadcaster NHK reported.
A spokesperson at Japan Airlines said the aircraft had departed from Shin-Chitose airport on the northern island of Hokkaido. Haneda has closed all runways following the incident, a spokesperson for the airport said.
The images on broadcaster NHK showed the plane moving along the runway before an explosion of orange flames burst from beneath and behind it.
All 367 passengers on board the Airbus plane were evacuated. The cause of the incident was not immediately clear, but television reports said that the Airbus collided with a coast guard aircraft.