Panic at Tokyo-Haneda International Airport after two planes collide, 5 dead

2024-01-02 12:10:00

[Article publié le mardi 02 janvier 2024 à 11h14 et mis à jour à 13h10] A Japan Airlines plane caught fire on Tuesday on a runway at Tokyo-Haneda International Airport, according to images from Japanese public television channel NHK. In these brief images taken at 5:47 p.m. local time (08:47 GMT), we could see the plane taxiing on the tarmac, before an explosion was triggered and left a trail of flames behind the aircraft, which then slowed down.

According to initial information transmitted by Japanese media, a collision between an airliner and another aircraft – belonging to the Japanese coast guard, according to NHK – is the cause of the fire. According to several local media, it was the airliner JAL 5016, an Airbus A50-900 coming from Shin-Chitose airport near Sapporo (northern Japan).

Japan Airlines said its plane hit the other plane shortly after landing, according to Kyodo news agency, adding that Japan’s Transport Ministry was investigating the accident.

5 people died

The 367 passengers and 12 crew members of the airliner were evacuated according to NHK. Among the passengers were eight children, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo. Five of the six occupants of a Japanese Coast Guard plane died after the plane collided on the ground with a Japan Airlines airliner, the Japanese Minister of Transport announced.

« The commander (of the coast guard plane, editor’s note) was able to escape “, but the other five people on board are ” deceased said Tetsuo Saito.

[Japan Airlines aircraft is in flames at Haneda Airport; collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft; information that everyone evacuated; currently being confirmed]
I have summarized the information so far. (Broadcast around 6:40 p.m.)https://t.co/UGWveQ1hVi#nhk_video pic.twitter.com/TbGn28hr3m

— NHK News (@nhk_news) January 2, 2024

Debris also littered the runway and more than 70 fire engines were deployed on site, according to NHK.

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Tokyo-Haneda is one of the Japanese capital’s two international airports and one of the busiest in the world. Accidents involving airliners are extremely rare in Japan. The most serious of these occurred in 1985, when a Japan Airlines plane crashed between Tokyo and Osaka, killing 520 people, one of the worst aviation disasters in the world. Japan was also already stunned this Tuesday by the immense earthquake which occurred the day before in the Noto peninsula, in the center of the country, and which left at least 48 dead according to a new provisional report from local authorities.