Everyone successfully got off this Japan Airlines plane at Haneda Airport. Photo / AP
Everyone successfully got off this Japan Airlines plane at Haneda Airport. Photo / AP
All of the 379 people on board a Japanese plane that exploded in a fireball got off safely in an incredible evacuation that has sparked praise from aviation experts.
Passengers following crew directions and leaving their cabin luggage behind was a “major factor” in the successful evacuation, aviation experts told the BBC.
JAL flight 516 was landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport when it hit a coast guard plane and burst into flames, continuing down the runway spewing fire and grey smoke on Tuesday evening.
Within 20 minutes, all 379 passengers and crew members slid down emergency chutes and survived. The pilot of the coast guard plane — a Bombardier Dash-8 — evacuated with injuries but five crew members were killed.
The crash happened when the Japan Airlines plane landed, and collided with a coast guard plane taking off. Photo / AP
Shigenori Hiraoka, head of the Transport Ministry Civil Aviation Bureau, said the collision occurred when the JAL plane landed on one of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport’s four runways where the coast guard aircraft was preparing to take off.
Hiraoka praised JAL for “taking appropriate procedures” to safely evacuate all passengers and crew members.
Professor Ed Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich, told the BBC: “I don’t see a single passenger on the ground, in any of the videos I’ve seen, that has got their luggage with them… If people tried to take their cabin luggage, that’s really dangerous because they would slow down the evacuation.”
The inflatable evacuation slides were not deployed correctly because of the way the jet landed, and the announcement system malfunctioned meaning flight attendants had to shout and use a megaphone to be heard, Japan Airlines said.
“This accident was far from ideal. The aircraft was nose down, which meant it was difficult for passengers to move,” Galea said.
This aerial photo show the burnt-out Japan Airlines plane at Haneda Airport. Photo / AP
A former Japan Airlines flight attendant told the BBC that it would have been very difficult to ensure passengers didn’t panic, instead keeping calm and following crew instructions.
“What they achieved is harder than one can imagine. The fact that they managed to get everyone to escape is a result of good co-ordination among crew and passengers following instructions.”
All passengers and crew members left their baggage and slid down the escape chutes within 20 minutes of the landing as smoke filled the cabin of the burning aircraft.
Videos posted by passengers showed people covering their mouths with handkerchiefs as they ducked down and moved toward the exits. Some passengers told news media they felt safe only after reaching a grassy area beyond the tarmac.
“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,” Swedish passenger Anton Deibe, 17, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
“The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was a hell. We have no idea where we are going so we just run out into the field. It was chaos,” Deibe added.
Transport officials and police begin their investigation at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Wednesday after a large passenger plane and the Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway and burst into flames, killing several people aboard the coast guard plane. Photo / AP
Another passenger told NHK television that cabin attendants were calm and told everyone to leave their baggage behind, then all lights went off and the temperature inside the cabin started rising. The passenger said she was afraid she might not get off the plane alive.
Even after safely evacuating the aircraft, passengers on the tarmac were struck with new horror as flames engulfed the plane and one of the jet engines whirred to life as if it was about to take off, William Manzione, who was on the flight, said. The crew shouted for them to run away from the plane.
“The feeling was this is about to explode,” Manzione told Sky News. “That was the biggest moment of fear for me and the other passengers.”
The remains of the burnt-out Japanese coast guard aircraft is seen, right, at Haneda Airport, where five people died. Photo / AP
Safety consultant John Cox said the cabin crew “did a remarkably great job” getting passengers out of the plane.
“It shows good training,” Cox said. “And if you look at the video, people are not trying to get stuff out of the overheads. They are concentrating on getting out of the airplane.”
