Japan Airlines Fire Video Shows Plane Burst Into Flames After Runway Crash

Five people have died after a Japan Airlines passenger plane collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda Airport and burst into flames.

Footage posted by Japan's public broadcaster NHK showed a fire and smoke coming from the side of the Japan Airlines plane as it taxied on the runway shortly before 6 p.m. local time. Videos show flames coming out of the windows of the aircraft and underneath it, as rescuers work to extinguish the blaze.

Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that all 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines flight were safely evacuated before the plane was entirely engulfed in flames.

The pilot of the Coast Guard aircraft also escaped, but five crew members died, Saito said.

Yoshinori Yanagishima, a Coast Guard spokesperson, told the Associated Press that its plane was MA-722, a Bombardier Dash-8. The plane, which is based at Haneda, was preparing to fly to Niigata Airport in western Japan to deliver relief after a powerful earthquake hit the region on New Year's Day, leaving at least 48 dead.

The Japan Airlines flight, JAL 516, arrived at Haneda Airport from New Chitose Airport near the city of Sapporo. It was carrying 367 passengers, including eight children and 12 crew members. The Tokyo Fire Department said 17 people were injured.

One person posted a video on social media showing passengers stuck inside the Japan Airlines plane as the cabin filled with smoke. "I thought I was going to die," the person wrote in Japanese in the post on X, formerly Twitter.

"I felt a bump, like the aircraft was colliding with something when touching down," a passenger on the Japan Airlines flight told the Kyodo news agency. "I saw a spark outside the window, and the cabin was filled with gas and smoke."

Jonas Deibe, a Swede who was on the Japan Airlines flight, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that "the entire cabin was filled with smoke" within a few minutes.

"We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened, and we threw ourselves at them," he said.

His 17-year-old son Anton told the newspaper that the smoke "stung like hell."

"We had no idea where we were going, so we just ran out into the field," he said. "It was chaos."

Haneda Airport, one of Tokyo's two main airports, closed all of its runways after the incident. All but the runway where the collision took place were reopened by 9:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Newsweek reached out to Japan Airlines and Japan's Coast Guard for comment via email.

Update 1/2/24, 7:06 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

Update 1/2/24, 10:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.