Japan Airlines passengers battle through smoke, see wing engulfed in flames in harrowing video of collision
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Horrific video from inside the cabin of the Japanese plane that collided with a military aircraft shows passengers screaming inside the smoke-filled cabin as the terrifying scene unfolded at the Tokyo-area airport Tuesday evening.
Japan Airlines Flight 516 was landing at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport when it struck a Coast Guard jet before barreling down the runway in a ball of fire.
“I thought I was going to die,” an X user wrote in Japanese alongside the harrowing footage.
The terrified user captured the moment the aircraft raced down the runway with an orange glow emitting from the plane’s left side engine before making rough contact with the runway.
Passengers could be heard screaming as the Airbus A350’s main compartment filled with smoke, according to another clip posted by the social media user.
“I felt a boom like we had hit something and jerked upward the moment we landed,” a passenger on the JAL flight told Kyodo news agency. “I saw sparks outside the window and the cabin filled with gas and smoke.”
The Japan Airlines flight was returning to Tokyo after taking off from Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido an hour and a half earlier.
A recording from the airport’s control tower seemingly showed the passenger airplane being given the all-clear to “continue approach” to land, according to The Guardian, citing a broadcast of the live air traffic signals.
“Our understanding is that [permission to land] was given,” Japan Airlines officials told the newspaper.
All 367 passengers and 12 crewmembers were safely evacuated via the emergency inflatable slides as the fire engulfed the aircraft.
Fourteen people on the passenger plane were injured, according to Japan Airlines, but none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
The Japanese Coast Guard Bombardier-built Dash-8 maritime patrol plane, a twin-propelled aircraft was lining up to take off when the passenger plane crashed with it.
Five of the six Coast Guard personnel onboard were killed while the flight’s 39-year-old captain escaped but was injured.
The military aircraft was headed to Niigata Airport to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day, which killed at least 62 people, military officials said.
Aerial views showed the charred remains of the passenger plane resting on the side of the runway surrounded by fire retardant hours after it initially burst into flames.
As the fire crews were battling the blaze, parts of the burning plane began to break away.
The airport emergency responders extinguished the blaze in nearly six hours.
No official cause of the crash is known, but police are expected to investigate the accident on suspicion of professional negligence, NHK television reported.
The airport was closed for several hours but reopened and is still experiencing departure delays of at least 45 minutes and arrivals upwards of an hour and 15 minutes, according to FlightAware.
With Post wires
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