KUALA LUMPUR – Five crew members of a Japan coast guard plane died after a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane collided with it during the latter’s landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, one of the busiest in the world.
The pilot of the coast guard aircraft is severely injured, public broadcaster NHK quoted the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department as saying.
The coast guard aircraft was supposed to fly to Niigata to participate in quake relief efforts.
Currently, firefighters are extinguishing the blaze on the runway while all 379 passengers and crew of the JAL flight have been safely evacuated.
The JAL plane was taxiing briskly along the runway before it collided with the coast guard aircraft and burst into flame.
JAL said Flight 516 was coming into Tokyo from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido.
On the other side of Honshu island, a 7.6-magnitude quake hit the Sea of Japan at about 4pm (3pm Malaysia time) yesterday, triggering tsunami waves of more than 1m high and killing at least 48 people in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Japan’s worst ever aviation accident was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in the Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew. – January 2, 2024