Five people were killed after a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane collided with a smaller aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday.
The incident occurred after JAL Flight 516 crashed into a Japanese Coast Guard plane carrying resources for Japan’s earthquake relief efforts, according to multiple media outlets including CNN and the BBC. All 379 crew and passengers on the JAL flight were safely evacuated after the plane caught fire at 5:47 p.m. local time (3:47 a.m. ET), multiple sources added.
Despite this, five of the six people on board the Coast Guard plane died in the accident, public broadcaster NHK reports, Reuters reports. The pilot was seriously injured and is now being treated in a Tokyo hospital, the BBC reports.
A JAL representative told CNN that the details of the incident are currently being investigated. The Japan Coast Guard (JCG) also said a coast guard aircraft had departed for the JCG Air Base in Niigata Prefecture to assist in relief efforts following the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck Ishikawa on Monday.
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A Japan Airlines plane on the runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on January 2, 2024.
STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images
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According to the BBC, the craft was one of four craft headed to the site.
In footage shared on social media, flames engulfed the JAL plane as passengers scrambled to safety.
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“I felt a noise like we hit something and I jerked the moment we landed,” a passenger on the JAL flight told the Kyodo news agency, according to Reuters. “I saw sparks outside the window and the cabin filled with gas and smoke.”
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A Japan Airlines plane and a Coast Guard plane on the runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on January 2, 2024.
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“I was riding. It’s safe. Good 😭 #Haneda,” another passenger, who was on the Japan Airlines plane, wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter.)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumi Kishida’s office also issued instructions to authorities in their investigation into the incident.
“Act in close coordination among the responsible state agencies and organizations, sparing no effort in saving lives and saving victims,” the first instruction read, and the second: “Assess the state of damage as soon as possible and provide timely and accurate information to the public.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education