Many people were killed and wounded
Just entering 2024, there was a tragic accident in which an Airbus A350-900 plane collided with a transport plane on the runway while landing.
There were 379 people on board the Airbus, and the plane taxiing at high speed burst into flames in an instant, dragging a long path of fire on the runway. The entire plane broke into several sections and eventually burned to ashes.
This is the horrific scene that took place at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on the evening of January 2, local time.
What seems like an ordinary day has become a nightmare for many people.
The weather was good, and it was just getting dark, and the Japan Airlines large passenger plane, loaded with 367 passengers and 12 crew members, had flown from Hokkaido to Tokyo.
At that time, the plane had been confirmed by the tower and landed normally at 5:47. Unexpectedly, as soon as the plane touched the ground, it collided with another plane on the runway.
The nose landing gear, engines and wings of the plane collided with a Canadian-made Bombardier Dash-8-300 aircraft of the Japan Coast Guard, which was preparing to take off on the same runway, instantly igniting a raging fire, and half of the fuselage became a huge fireball.
Aerial flight on the scene of the accident photographed:
The passengers on the plane were shocked by the sudden scene.
Fortunately, after the plane stopped, the crew maintained great calm, and the crew quickly activated the escape facilities, and all personnel were successfully evacuated within 20 minutes.
Anton Deibe, a 17-year-old Swedish passenger on the plane, said: "Within minutes, the entire cabin was filled with smoke. We threw ourselves on the floor. Then the emergency hatch was opened, and we pounced on the emergency hatch. ”
"The smoke in the cabin was stinging. It's hell. We didn't know where we were going, we had to run into the wild. It was chaos. ”
Another traveler posted on X, "I thought I was dead. ”
Only 14 people were injured, none of them life-threatening.
One passenger said that the cabin attendant was calm and told everyone not to bring luggage, and then all the lights went out and the temperature in the cabin began to rise.
The fuselage was partially burned to the skeleton and eventually reduced to ashes, the fuselage broke, and the tail part collapsed weakly on the runway.
It is not difficult to see from the images of the scene that one side of the engine is already missing a piece and has been breathing fire.
The fire burned for 6 hours before it was extinguished.
Full video of the accident from multiple angles:
The other plane that collided was not so lucky.
The Japan Coast Guard plane, loaded with relief supplies, was preparing to fly to the disaster area that had struck the day before.
After the collision, there was an explosion of the transport aircraft. There were a total of 6 people on board, except for the captain who was seriously injured, the remaining 5 people were all killed, and the plane worth tens of millions of dollars was also completely reimbursed.
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has determined that the accident was an aviation accident and has notified the Japan Transportation Safety Board.
The runways at Haneda Airport were all closed after the incident.
A Chinese in Japan, Awei (pseudonym), was at the airport at the time of the incident, preparing to fly to Vancouver on a flight that night.
He said he had checked in and boarded the shuttle bus at the time of the incident.
"I heard a loud explosion in the distance, and when I looked closely, one plane was taxiing down the runway like a giant fireball, and another plane not far from it was also on fire. ”
He Wei said that the passengers on the shuttle bus were frightened at that time, and he could smell a burning smell on the bus, "After the plane exploded, there was a lot of smoke, and the whole tarmac was filled with the smell of burning." ”
He Wei's shuttle bus was then urgently told to return to the terminal, and at the same time, he saw multiple fire trucks heading towards the two planes that had been involved in the accident.
He Wei recalled that the weather at Haneda Airport was sunny that day, and the visibility at night was good.
Eventually, the flight to Vancouver took off smoothly after a delay of more than two hours.
Another Chinese tourist, Li Li (pseudonym), arrived at Haneda Airport from Beijing at around 3 p.m. to prepare for a connecting flight to Hokkaido.
He was going to fly on the plane that had burned down completely.
Suddenly, many Japanese passengers gathered on the TV in front of the boarding gate, and the TV was scrolling with news about the incident.
"I realized what was going on and realized that the plane I was about to fly on, and I was shocked. ”
Haneda Airport was canceled all domestic flights that day, and it took him more than three hours to make the change and retrieve his luggage.
Japan Airlines said it could not guarantee that flights would resume the next day.
It will take some time to investigate the cause of the accident, but it is more certain that the transport plane entered Runway 34R, where the JAL aircraft landed, from the C5 position.
The location of the accident
The Coast Guard's aircraft may be suspected of negligent piloting.
In such a major accident, everyone on board the Airbus aircraft is safe, which is a blessing in misfortune.
I hope everyone can go home safely!