•The burning passenger plane
A Japan Airlines plane was in flames as it landed on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport yesterday evening.
It had collided with a coast guard aircraft, reports AFP.
Meanwhile, according to BBC, footage on broadcaster NHK showed flames coming out of the windows of the aircraft. Also, beneath the Japan Airlines plane was on fire.
The runway was also set alight.
Reports coming in say the passengers of the burning aircraft have been evacuated.
All 367 passengers were successfully evacuated from the blazing Japan Airlines plane
Reports said that the plane had just arrived from Sapporo airport on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
A coast guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said they were “checking details”.
“It’s not clear if there was a collision. But it is certain that our plane is involved,” he told our correspondent.
The television footage showed flames coming out of windows and the plane’s nose on the ground as rescue workers sprayed it.
More than 70 fire engines were being deployed, NHK reported.
Japan has not suffered a serious commercial aviation accident in decades.
Its worst ever was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in central Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew.
That disaster was one of the world’s deadliest plane crashes involving a single flight.
