Live images posted by NHK showed a JAL Airbus A350 on fire as it skidded on the runway at 6:00 p.m. local time.
Videos and images posted on social media showed passengers screaming in the plane's smoke-filled cabin and running across the runway after being freed via a rescue slide.
All 367 passengers and 12 crew members on board the burning plane were rescued, but the fire was not extinguished until nearly midnight, after continuing to burn for nearly six hours.
Satoshi Yamake, 59, a telecommunications company employee who was a passenger on the plane, said: “I didn’t understand what was happening and suddenly felt the plane tilting to one side on the runway and felt a strong shock. The flight attendants calmed us down and instructed us to leave the plane.”
Japan Airlines said four people on board the plane were injured, but none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that five crew members of the Coast Guard plane were killed, and the plane's 39-year-old captain managed to eject but was injured.
The JAL plane attempted to land normally but unfortunately collided with a Coast Guard Bombardier Dash-8 maritime patrol aircraft on the runway, an official said.
There were no reports of engine problems or other problems with the plane before the landing, the official said.
The Coast Guard said its aircraft were preparing to head to Niigata on Japan's west coast to deliver relief supplies to people affected by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 55 people on New Year's Day in Japan.
A JAL official said the airline believed it had been cleared to land, but he said communications with air traffic control were still under investigation.
Passengers and aviation experts praised the swiftness of the rescue operation.
Tsubasa Sawada, a 28-year-old passenger, said: "I heard the explosion about 10 minutes after everyone escaped the plane. I can only say it was a miracle, we could have died if we had escaped too slowly."
Paul Hayes, Head of Aviation Safety at Cirium's UK-based aviation consultancy Ascend, stressed that no passenger would leave the plane with their luggage – safety regulators have warned for years that collecting luggage before evacuating a dangerous area poses a significant risk to passengers' lives.
Photo: REUTERS/Issei Kato.
“The cabin crew did a great job… It was a miracle that all the passengers were able to get off the plane in time,” he said.
Japan Airlines said in a statement that the in-flight announcement system on the plane was not working during the evacuation, so crew members had to use loudspeakers to give instructions.
Kaoru Ishii, who was waiting for her 29-year-old daughter and her boyfriend at the airport's arrivals terminal, said she thought the flight was delayed until she received a call with an explanation from her daughter.
“It said the plane caught fire and it escaped on the slide. I'm glad it's OK.”
The plane took off from New Chitose airport on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, a JAL spokesman said.
Based on interviews with crew members, the airline said, the crew confirmed that they had received clearance to land from air traffic control, and repeated this clearance for confirmation before beginning the approach and landing procedures.
“The aircraft had no problems during the entire flight from takeoff from New Chitose Airport and during the flight,” the airline said.
The exact series of instructions given just before the collision cannot yet be determined from the multichannel recordings on liveatc.net.
The website that monitors air traffic control stations recorded an air traffic controller telling pilots arriving at Haneda Airport shortly after the crash: “The airport is closed. Haneda Airport is closed.”
Transport Minister Saito said the cause of the incident was not yet clear and the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB), police and other agencies would continue to investigate.
The JTSB has launched an investigation and will be joined by representatives from France, where the aircraft was manufactured, and the UK, where the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines on the aircraft were manufactured.
Airbus has also said it will send technical advisors.
Haneda, one of Tokyo's two main airports, was closed for hours after the collision, but transport ministry officials there said three runways had been reopened.
JAL's rival ANA said earlier it had canceled 110 domestic flights taking off and landing at Haneda Airport on Tuesday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said government agencies were working to ensure the accident did not affect efforts to deliver earthquake relief supplies, and offered condolences for the dead Coast Guard crew members.
“This is a great loss, because we have lost crew members who were performing their duties with a clear sense of their role and responsibility to the victims in the earthquake area.”
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)
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