The quick thinking of the flight crew in a burning Japan Airlines aircraft enabled the safe evacuation of 367 travellers and 12 crew members, NHK reported.
The last person evacuated from the plane at 6:05pm, 18 minutes after landing.
Collided with coast guard plane
The Japan Airlines (JAL) aircraft on Tuesday (Jan. 2) had been flying from Hokkaido into Haneda Airport in Tokyo when it collided with a coast guard plane on the runway and burst into flames.
Pilots of the commercial plane were initially unaware that a fire had broken out, but flight attendants noticed that the aircraft was on fire.
The chief flight attendant reported to the cockpit that the plane was burning, as cabin crew needed permission to open the emergency exits.
Meanwhile, smoke began to fill the cabin. The sound of babies crying and people begging for the doors to be opened echoed throughout the plane.
Inside the cabin of Japan Airlines Flight 516 right after collision, passengers remained calm and orderly waiting to escape pic.twitter.com/uLdbvblZ6L
— Unspoken Context (互fo) (@unspokencontext) January 3, 2024
Intercom was no longer functioning
There were eight emergency exits in the plane, though five were deemed unusable due to the flame, leaving only the left and right exits in the front of the plane and the left rear exit safe from the fire.
Passengers began evacuating from the two exits at the front of the plane.
However, the pilots were not able to grant permission to open the left rear door because the plane's intercom system was no longer functioning.
The flight attendants assessed the situation and decided to open the left rear door on their own initiative to allow passengers to disembark from the escape chutes.
羽田空港飛行機火災
ものすごい衝撃の直後、両翼から炎
前のハッチしか開かず、機内に煙が充満していたとのこと
— 話題の動画 (@wadaino_video) January 2, 2024
Their decision was in line with existing evacuation procedures, reported NHK.
Flame soon spread across the plane after the last person left the plane.
JAL plane on fire. Image via Reuters/X.
It took eight and a half hours before the fire died down, Kyodo reported, citing the Tokyo Fire Department.
Safe evacuation
Everyone aboard the JAL plane safely evacuated, though 14 suffered injuries.
Kyodo News reported that the 18-minute evacuation was described as a "miracle", and that JAL credited the successful evacuation to the airline's training programs.
Five of the six personnel on the coast guard plane died, while the captain escaped with serious injuries, Financial Times reported.
The coast guard plane was heading to Niigata Prefecture to deliver supplies for people affected by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that hit the western coast of central Japan on Jan. 1, according to Kyodo News.
Investigations ongoing
On Wednesday, Japan's transport ministry released flight control communications showing that the smaller coast guard plane did not have permission to enter the runway. However, the aircraft's captain maintained that he had been given the approval.
Data released by the ministry showed that the coast guard plane had read back the instruction by the control tower to "taxi to holding point", in the same timeframe that air traffic controllers told JAL pilots that the runway was clear for landing.
The flight and voice recorders of the coast guard aircraft have been retrieved, while Japan's Transport Safety Board is still searching for these components from the JAL plane.
An investigation on the suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injury has also been launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
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Top image via @Reuters/X.