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Passengers escape after Japan Airlines plane catches fire at Haneda airport

The Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport may have collided with a coast guard aircraft, television reports said.

The Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport may have collided with a coast guard aircraft, television reports said. Photo: JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty

UPDATED 10.14pm

All 379 passengers and crew of a Japan Airlines plane have escaped a fire that erupted after it collided with a smaller Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

However, five out of the six crew of the Coast Guard aircraft are unaccounted for, while the captain escaped, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

Footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the Japan Airlines Airbus A350 bursting into flames as it skidded down the tarmac after landing on Tuesday.

It was later overwhelmed by the blaze despite feverish efforts by rescue crews to control the fire.

Miraculously, all 367 passengers and 12 crew were evacuated.

Footage and images shared on social media showed passengers shouting inside the smoke-filled cabin and running across the tarmac away from the blaze.

The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan’s west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day, killing at least 48 people.

A spokesperson at Japan Airlines said its aircraft had departed from Shin-Chitose airport on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed relevant agencies to co-ordinate to assess the damage swiftly and provide information to the public, according to his office.

Haneda has closed all runways following the incident, a spokesperson for the airport said.

Earlier, local TV showed a large burst of fire erupt from the side of a Japan Airlines plane as it taxied on a runway.

The area around the wing then caught fire.

Later video showed fire crews working to put out the fire.

NHK TV reported that the plane was Japan Airlines flight 516 that had left Shin Chitose airport in Japan to Haneda.

Television images showed passengers leaving the aircraft via an emergency chute while the fire was being extinguished.

Roughly 400 people on board had been evacuated, NHK TV reported, citing Japan Airlines.

Haneda is one of the busiest airports in Japan, and many people travel over the New Year holidays.

-with Reuters, dpa

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