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Pilots of a Japanese airliner that collided with a smaller plane at Tokyo Haneda Airport were initially unaware that their jet was on fire!

At first, the Japanese airline pilots were not aware that their aircraft was on fire until it collided with a smaller aircraft at Tokyo Haneda Airport. According to a Japan Airlines representative who talked with the BBC, it was a flight attendant who alerted them to the cabin fire.

Subsequently, Japan Airlines Flight 516’s evacuation of all 379 passengers was carried out with accuracy, saving lives. Out of the six individuals aboard the smaller Coast Guard aircraft, a Bombardier Dash-8, five perished.

“The pilot experienced a sharp shock immediately after landing and lost control to stay on the runway. A fire occurred, but the pilots weren’t aware of it at first and had to get information from the cabin attendant, according to a JAL representative.

There were twelve and three pilots. flight attendants who were on the plane when the incident happened. Due to damage to the aircraft’s announcement system, the crew had to yell instructions using megaphones and their own voices.

“As soon as cabin attendants saw that some passengers had realized their jet was on fire, they immediately reminded them to remain calm and not to stand up, since this may make the escape extremely difficult. These instructions were issued without the announcement system because it was not functional.”

The evacuation was hailed as a “miraculous 18 minutes” by the Japanese media. Before the plane caught fire, passengers abandoned their carry-on bags, hurried to the emergency exits, and slid out.

Its coastguard aircraft was not cleared to take off on Haneda’s runway, according to Japanese authorities, who made this announcement late on Wednesday. Delivering emergency supplies to earthquake-affected communities was the plane’s planned mission.

The Coast Guard aircraft was instructed to “taxi to holding point C5”, a location on the airfield’s taxiway system where aircraft wait for authorization to enter the active runway for takeoff, while the JAL flight was cleared to land on Haneda’s runway 34R.

The Coast Guard aircraft confirmed air traffic’s call to taxi to the holding position, according to the transcript, which was sent just before the incident.

Passengers describe Chaos Inside flight 516

The crash of an Airbus A350 carrying 379 people into another airliner on landing in Tokyo was the first shocking event. Subsequently, the plane burst into flames and billowed smoke along the runway.

Then, realizing that their lives relied on the next few seconds, everyone hurried to escape a cabin that was starting to fill with fumes. It is remarkable that every passenger on Japan Airlines flight 516 managed to escape. Experts claim that modern technology and a faultless evacuation were major factors in their survival.

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Hundreds Survive Japan Plane fire after Evacuation

Investigators are trying to piece together what happened at Haneda airport at 17:47 local time (08:47 GMT) and how two planes could have been using the runway simultaneously. As of right now, passenger comments and videos depict a brief period of dread followed by astonishment at what they had endured.

As the Airbus A350 lurched to a halt on the runway, passenger Anton Deibe, a 17-year-old Swede, detailed the pandemonium that followed impact. where we were heading, so we simply dash into the open space. There was pandemonium.” He, his parents, and his sister were able to safely escape the debris.

A passenger named Satoshi Yamake, 59, claimed he felt the plane “tilted to the side and felt a big bump” during the initial impact. There was a “bump, like the aircraft was colliding with something when touching down,” according to another unidentified passenger. The cabin was full with smoke, and I noticed a spark outside the window.”

According to a third, who spoke with Kyodo News, he felt “a boom like we had hit something and jerked upward the moment we landed”. On phones, little clips of the moments were captured.

As the aircraft came to a stop, some passengers captured the crimson glow of a still sparking engine on camera. Another recorded inside, with smoke rapidly blocking the camera’s view as passengers yelled and cabin staff attempted to guide their next moves.

Credit : BBC News