Japan Airlines plane on fire on runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport: TV images

A Japan Airlines plane burst into flames on
the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday after apparently colliding
with a coast guard aircraft, media reports said.

Images on broadcaster NHK showed the plane moving along the runway before a
large explosion of orange flames exploded from beneath and behind it.

All 367 passengers and 12 crew onboard the Airbus plane were evacuated, NHK
reported. Those onboard included eight children, Kyodo News reported.

NHK reported that one of the six crew members on the coast guard plane was
safe but that the other five were unaccounted for.

The cause of the incident was not immediately clear, but television reports
said that the Airbus collided with a coast guard aircraft.

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 on
Monday.

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”.

“It’s not clear if there was a collision. But it is certain that our plane is
involved,” he told AFP.

JAL said the passenger plane either collided with the other aircraft on a
runway or a taxiway after it touched down, Kyodo reported.

Footage apparently shot by a passenger inside the aircraft showed flames
coming from underneath it before the cabin fills with smoke. AFP was unable
to verify the footage.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said it was
probing the incident, Kyodo added.

The television footage showed flames coming out of windows as rescue workers
sprayed the aircraft before flames engulfed the entire plane.

There was also burning debris on the runway and reports said the airport was
closed to traffic.

More than 70 fire engines were being deployed, NHK reported.

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. (BSS/AFP)