Japan Airlines has confirmed that a passenger jet collided with a coast guard plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, resulting in five people on the coast guard aircraft dying. However, all 379 passengers and crew escaped to safety down emergency slides before the Japan Airlines Airbus was engulfed in flames. Aviation experts have praised the crew for their actions, stating that their actions helped avert a far worse outcome.
JAL officials said they had received landing permission from air traffic control, but JAL and the land ministry declined to comment directly on exchanges between flight controllers and the two planes. A recording from Haneda's control tower, taken in the moments before the collision, showed a voice advising JAL's flight to "continue approach." Authorities began inspecting the wreckage and runway for clues as Haneda reopened three of its four runways on Wednesday.
The captain of the coast guard plane was its lone survivor but suffered serious injuries. Five others on the plane died. Foottage on Tuesday showed a ball of fire erupting and thick black smoke coming from underneath the airliner shortly after it landed and came to a halt on its nose after its front landing gear failed. Passengers could be seen sliding down inflatable slides as flames shot out from the rear of the aircraft in video posted to social media platform X.
As the plane was evacuated, dozens of fire engines tried to douse the flames but the entire plane was soon engulfed and it took eight hours to extinguish the blaze. Government officials pledged to investigate how the incident happened, as Japan had not experienced a serious commercial aviation accident for decades before Tuesday.
Police will conduct an investigation into whether possible professional negligence led to deaths and injuries. France's Airbus, which manufactured the JAL plane, said it would send a team of specialists to help Japanese authorities investigate. Investigators from Britain, where its two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines were manufactured, were due to join them.
Some domestic flights were operating on Wednesday morning from Haneda, one of the world's busiest airports, but dozens were cancelled.
