Charred remains: An aerial photo showing the burn-out Japan Airlines plane at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan. — AP
Workers began clearing the burnt wreckage of a passenger jet, three days after a near-catastrophic collision with a coast guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
Five of the six crew on the smaller aircraft died in the incident on Tuesday but all 379 people on the Japan Airlines Airbus were evacuated just before it was engulfed in flames.
TV footage from Haneda, one of the world’s busiest airports, showed diggers with cutting equipment sawing up the wings and the charred fuselage as planes took off and landed on adjacent runways.
A Japan Coast Guard spokesperson said clearance work was also underway to remove the mangled remains of its plane, which had been heading to deliver aid to earthquake-hit central Japan.
The evening collision saw a ball of fire and black smoke erupt underneath the JAL airliner as it sped down the runway after hitting the coast guard plane on the tarmac.
Videos shot by passengers showed bright orange flames seen from the plane windows as babies cried and people shouted for the doors to be opened.
In one clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: “Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god.”
All 367 passengers and 12 crew escaped down emergency slides and were all off within 20 minutes, with only two suffering minor physical injuries, JAL said.
Soon afterwards, the entire aircraft was an inferno and dozens of fire engines were trying to put out the blaze.
The cause of the accident is being investigated, with specialist teams travelling from France, Britain and Canada to help with the probe.
The flight recorder and voice recorder from the coast guard plane have been found, as has the flight recorder from the passenger jet. — AFP
Burnt Japan Airlines plane is seen at Haneda airport on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. A transcript of communication between traffic control and two aircraft that collided and burst into flames at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport showed that only the larger Japan Airlines passenger flight was given permission to use the runway where a coast guard plane was preparing for takeoff. (Kyodo News via AP)
