Tragedy struck the country for the second time in as many days after a devastating New Year’s Day earthquake left 48 dead.
Yesterday, a plane carrying crew preparing to help quake victims crashed into a Japan Airlines flight landing at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport, with the impact sparking an inferno.
Terrifying pictures showed the resulting carnage with a huge Airbus A-350 erupting into a fireball on the runway with flames lapping from the aircraft, which later snapped in two.
Smouldering debris could be seen falling from the fuselage onto the tarmac as petrified passengers scrambled off the aircraft and along the runway to safety.
All 379 passengers, including eight children, and crew on Flight 516 managed to escape from “hell”, a feat described as a “miracle”.
Japanese police fear only the pilot of the six on board the significantly smaller propeller-driven Bombardier Dash-8 managed to flee.
The full passenger flight had left Shin Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, Japan, and was landing at Haneda when the disaster struck.
It either collided with the other aircraft on the runway or a taxiway after it touched down, initial investigations suggest.
Flames were seen coming out of the windows of the Airbus A-350 as it skidded along the tarmac after landing. The plane then erupted into a fireball and its fuselage collapsed.
Pictures showed a raging inferno as the hulk of the plane broke in two and hundreds of firefighters battled to control the blaze.
A video taken by a terrified passenger looking showed the plane moving down the runway, leaving a trail of smoke and burning with an orange light in its wake.
Distressing footage was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of thunderous engine rumbling as inside the plane high-pitched sirens blared out.
The unidentified passenger providing a trembling commentary said: “I thought I was going to die”.
Passenger Anton Deibe, 17, a Swedish national, said the “entire cabin was filled with smoke within a few minutes”, adding: “We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them. The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was hell. We have no idea where we are going so we just ran out into the field. It was chaos.”
All runways at Haneda were immediately closed.
Former pilot Roger Whitefield said: “We witnessed a miracle. The way all those passengers [got off] that plane is almost beyond belief (with) smoke pouring out of one of the rear doors, the visibility inside must have been nil. This (collision) would have been a total surprise to everybody on the flight deck.”
“There would be a fair amount of confusion to say the least. It was a very full plane. The fact they got all of the people off is a miracle…no two ways about it.”
Japan’s worst aviation disaster came in 1985 when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed killing 520 passengers and crew in what was one of the world’s deadliest crashes.
Experts said the “miracle” evacuation – the first major accident involving an Airbus A350 – was in part due to the plane being constructed of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic which withstood ferocious temperatures and allowed passengers to escape.
Airbus, the French-owned European consortium that makes the plane, has launched an investigation.
Tetsuo Saito, Japan’s minister for transport, said: “Japan Airlines informed Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau that 379 people, including 367 passengers and 12 crew members, had been safely evacuated. Regarding the coastguard plane, one captain was evacuated but five other crew members were confirmed dead.”
Yesterday’s disaster came after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake destroyed huge swathes of Japan’s west coast, killing dozens and flattening tens of thousands of homes.
