A packed passenger jet collided with a Japanese coast guard aircraft and burst into flames on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday, officials said, killing five crew members on the coast guard plane.
NHK reported that all occupants of Japan Airlines flight JAL-516, believed to total 379 people, got out safely before the plane was entirely engulfed in flames. The Japanese coast guard said earlier that the pilot of its plane had escaped but five crewmembers were missing.
“Regarding the coast guard plane, we have been informed that the captain escaped and five people were confirmed dead,” Japanese transport minister Tetsuo Saito told reporters later Tuesday.
Local TV video showed a large eruption of fire and smoke from the side of the Japan Airlines plane as it taxied on a runway. The area around the wing then caught fire. Video aired an hour later showed the plane fully on fire.
NHK TV said the plane was an Airbus A-350 that had flown from Shin Chitose airport, near the city of Sapporo, to Haneda.
Coast Guard spokesperson Yoshinori Yanagishima confirmed the collision between the passenger plane and its flight MA-722, a Bombardier Dash-8. It was not immediately known if the pilot who evacuated was injured, Yanagisawa said.
The incident comes just a day after a series of earthquakes rocked western Japan, killing almost 50 people in the Ishikawa prefecture, and Kyodo said the coast guard plane had been due to head to Niigata to deliver relief goods to residents affected by the disaster.
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