Well, it seems that Japan has not had a good start to 2024. After experiencing multiple 4.0+ magnitude earthquakes yesterday including a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which triggered a tsunami, news are coming about a Japan Airlines aircraft catching fire after a collision with another aircraft.
Japan Airlines (JAL) flight JL516, operated by an Airbus A350-900 aircraft registered JA13XJ, was performing a scheduled landing at Tokyo Haneda Airport after completing a flight from Sapporo at 1747 hours local time (0847 hours UTC).
During the landing, the aircraft collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, a De Havilland Canada DHC-8-315Q MPA registered JA722A. The aircraft was heading to Niigata Airport on Japan’s West Coast, carrying aid for the victims of the recent New Year’s Day earthquake.
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The aircraft had 367 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Fortunately, due to the prompt action by the crew, each of them evacuated safely. However, five out of the six crew of the coast guard aircraft were found dead in the crash, with the captain having escaped the aircraft successfully.
NHK’s live broadcast showed the Japan Airlines Airbus A350 bursting into flames as it slid across the tarmac post-landing, eventually being consumed by fire despite intense firefighting efforts. This is the first hull loss of an Airbus A350 aircraft.
What caused the collision remains unclear. The coastguard said an investigation was underway to establish how and at what time the two aircraft came into contact with each other.
According to reports, the JAL A350 is still on fire (as of writing this article), almost three hours after it caught fire. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida directed the officials to “quickly ascertain the damage caused to the aircraft”.
Footage from inside the aircraft shows passengers screaming and evacuating.
The cabin crew aboard JAL A350 truly did an incredible job. They are one of the last ones to disembark in situations like this and in this case also, they ensured that all the passengers leave the plane first. What’s good to see is that passengers are not seen taking their belongings with them while evacuating, something which is of utmost importance in evacuations.
This is just another incident to remind us of respecting and following all the procedures explained by the crew on a flight.
Japan Airlines has not had a crash since 1985 when a jumbo jet operating a flight from Tokyo to Osaka crashed.
Featured image by Reuters/Issei Kato
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