Passengers escape from the inflatable ramp of a burning Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350
New Delhi:
Visuals have emerged showing how over 350 passengers of a Japan Airlines aircraft escaped from the plane after it caught fire on the runway in Tokyo-Haneda airport.
The JAL aircraft, an Airbus A350, had collided with a turboprop aircraft of Japan’s Coast Guard while it was de-accelerating after landing.
Global aviation safety website JACDED posted a video of passengers sliding down the inflatable ramp above one of the wings. One of the engines was still running while the passengers slid down the slide.
Evacuation of #JL516 via slides and while engine #2 is still running. All 379 occupants on board escaped and survived. The status of the six people aboard the Coast Guard DHC-8 aircraft is still uncertain at this point. pic.twitter.com/ESBS4FY00a
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) January 2, 2024
All 367 passengers and 12 crew onboard the Airbus plane were evacuated, broadcaster NHK reported. Those onboard included eight children, Kyodo News reported.
There were six people in the coast guard plane. One of them was rescued, while the rest five were killed.
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 the plane had just arrived from Sapporo airport on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Footage apparently shot by a passenger inside the Airbus aircraft showed flames coming from underneath it before the cabin fills with smoke.
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.