Visuals showed flames coming out of the windows and the plane’s nose on the ground.
Five of the six people on the coast uard plane that reportedly collided with a Japan Airlines plane on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport today are unaccounted for, broadcaster NHK said. “There were 6 people in the aircraft, of which one escaped, and the safety of five people is unknown,” the Japan Coast Guard told NHK.
The coast guard aircraft was an Ma72 fixed-wing aircraft, it said.
The accident came a day after a powerful earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, killing at least 30 people, destroying buildings and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes. The Jiji news agency reported the coast guard plane was scheduled to leave to help with rescue efforts following a massive earthquake in central Japan.
The Japan Airlines plane was sen moving along the runaway a large explosion of orange flames exploded from beneath and behind it. All 379, including eight children and 12 crew members, on board the Airbus plane have been evacuated.
Visuals showed flames coming out of the windows and the plane’s nose on the ground as rescue workers sprayed it. Burning debris were also seen on the runway. As per reports, more than 70 fire engines have been deployed to extinguish the fire.
Reports said that the plane had just arrived from Sapporo airport on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. A coast guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said they were “checking details”.
All runways at the Haneda airport have been closed after the accident, an official said.
Japan has not suffered a serious commercial aviation accident in decades.
Its worst ever was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in central Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew.
That disaster was one of the world’s deadliest plane crashes involving a single flight.
