More than 300 Tokyo-bound travelers were greeted with a fiery surprise as their Japan Airlines flight landed at Haneda Airport on Tuesday, their aircraft bursting into flames after crashing into a Coast Guard airplane.
A Japan Airlines plane collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft while landing in Tokyo. The airline said all 367 passengers and 12 crew members had evacuated the jet. Five crew members on the Coast Guard plane were killed.https://t.co/GCd8eIeVQe pic.twitter.com/boLGMzkM80
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 2, 2024
Though all of the Airbus A350’s 367 passengers and 12 crew members were able to safely evacuate the aircraft per Japan Airlines, the Coast Guard craft wasn’t nearly as lucky. Five of the plane’s six passengers, who were headed to drop off supplies in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture after Monday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake, died in the collision.
「飛行機が燃えちゃった」乗客の娘から炎上した日航機の写真 「無事で良かった」安堵の父 https://t.co/nBK4kR2uyo
— 産経ニュース (@Sankei_news) January 2, 2024
立ち込める白煙、叫び声、キャビンアテンダンドの懸命な誘導、窓外で炎上する機体、シューターで脱出… 乗客が撮影した動画には、迫真の状況が映っていました。 pic.twitter.com/YPgDGYtUCy
Hi, I was on it. Everyone is safe and they are taking us to the terminal. pic.twitter.com/7tqOexGuqZ
— William Manzione (@wmanzione) January 2, 2024
“They were filled with a determined sense of mission, and it is extremely regrettable and distressing what has happened to them,” said Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, per the New York Times. “I express my profound condolences to their surviving families.”
While upwards of 70 firefighter vehicles arrived at the airport to help extinguish the massive inferno, the blaze was still going strong two hours into efforts, according to ABC News.
So take it from this deadly incident — air traffic controllers are tired.
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