On the evening of January 2, local time, a Japanese Airlines Airbus A350 passenger plane collided with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, and then caught fire. Fortunately, within about 10 minutes of the landing and fire of the airliner, all 379 people on board were safely evacuated.
Nearly 40 years ago, only four of the 524 people in a Japanese Airlines crash survived, making it the deadliest single plane crash in the history of the world's aviation industry and the second most serious air crash in the world. In the aftermath of this accident, JAL learned a hard lesson.
The passenger recalled the details of the escape: the engine exploded as soon as it was evacuated
A Hong Kong passenger, Mr. Cheung, escaped from the burning airliner. He recalled that he was sitting by the window, and the impact force of the nose tire hit the ground, and he originally thought it was just an ordinary hard landing, but he didn't expect to see the engine fire and smoke. The passengers panicked, and the flight attendant told everyone to stay calm and stay in their seats, and after about a minute, they were instructed to evacuate by escape ladder.
"Just about 100 meters away from the plane, the left engine exploded. "At that time, most of the passengers had been evacuated, and the flight attendants began to count the number of people.
Yasuto Kanai, who returned to Tokyo from Sapporo on the plane that day, later recalled: "Just before the plane landed, there was a sudden impact, and then I saw the engine catch fire. ”
Yasuto Kanai, 63, said, "After the accident, I heard the flight attendants shouting, 'Calm down, please evacuate in order.'" He knew there must have been an accident with the plane, and he could see the fire at the engine through the window. So, he and the other passengers desperately controlled their nervous and anxious emotions, and withdrew from the exit in front of the plane in order according to the prompts.
According to Kanai's description: "It took less than 10 minutes for all the personnel to evacuate the plane, and then the fire of the plane became more and more serious, burning more rapidly, which made everyone very afraid." ”
When Kanai Yasuto evacuated the plane, he only had a mobile phone that he carried with him. He also said that everyone did not look for their luggage or coats when evacuating, but evacuated as soon as possible according to the instructions of the flight attendant.
Afterwards, recalling the dangerous situation at that time, Kanai Yasuto said: "Fortunately, everyone obeyed the instructions to evacuate at that time, and if there was a slight mistake in the meantime, the consequences would be unimaginable." ”
Aviation experts praise JAL evacuation as a "miracle operation"
After the accident, Galia, a professor at the University of Greenwich and director of the Fire Safety Engineering Center, called the JAL evacuation a "miracle operation". According to the footage, Galia pointed out that at that time, the nose of the passenger plane collapsed, the tail of the aircraft was up, and passengers were evacuated from two exits at the front and one exit at the rear of the aircraft, "some passengers were basically forced to climb a hill in thick smoke."
Alex Ferguson, the chief executive of Interactive Group, the company that designed in-flight safety instruction cards, said the ability to get all passengers off the plane safely in a potentially fatal accident is a testament to the close cooperation between passengers and crew.
Ferguson, who has been involved in passenger safety education in the aviation industry for 28 years, said: "The response speed of the crew is amazing and their handling is amazing. Ferguson said that in the JAL accident, passengers were asked to drop their luggage when they saw thick smoke, and if there were still people to pick up their luggage during the evacuation process, the whole process would be delayed, "in any case, it is really a miracle."
Guzetti, a former federal senior flight safety accident investigator, said: "The fact that passengers were able to evacuate the aircraft before it was engulfed in flames is a testament to the excellent design of the aircraft and the airline's ability to deal with it in a timely manner. ”
Nearly 40 years ago, there was a tragic air crash, and every year there was a 90-second evacuation drill
However, behind the "perfect operation" praised by many people in the industry, JAL has a painful lesson.
Japan Airlines is one of the largest airlines in Japan and the whole of Asia, one of the world's top 500 companies, and was once regarded as a proud symbol of the post-war economic prosperity of "Japan Co., Ltd."
However, on August 12, 1985, Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed in Gunma Prefecture near Tokyo, carrying 509 passengers and 15 crew members, and only four survived. This is the largest number of deaths in a single plane crash in the history of aviation in the world, and it is still an indelible pain in the hearts of the Japanese.
The crash severely undermined confidence in Japan's airlines, with domestic passenger numbers falling by a third at the time. In the aftermath of the accident, Japan Airlines has tightened its management in an all-round way. Kazuo Inamori, former chairman of JAL, said in 2011, "As an air transport company, we will put safety first and avoid accidents from happening again." ”
In response to the collision between a JAL passenger plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda Airport in Japan, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, an aviation critic who served as the captain of a JAL passenger plane, said: "Once a year, JAL flight attendants are trained to evacuate all passengers on board within 90 seconds. This time, the JAL plane, which was almost full, was out of danger, mainly because the captain, flight attendants, and passengers were able to evacuate calmly. ”
In an email, JAL spokesperson Maji Kuwasaki said that there were only three escape doors on board due to the fire, and JAL personnel were trained to evacuate all passengers within 90 seconds.
(Comprehensive People's Daily Online, Global Times, The Paper, China News Network)
Editor: Xie Zhe
Source: Jimu News