Japan Plane Catches Fire at Tokyo Airport

A Japan Airlines plane was in flames on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday after apparently colliding with a coast guard aircraft, television reports said.

The images on broadcaster NHK showed the plane moving along the runway before an explosion of orange flames burst from beneath and behind it.

All 367 passengers on board the Airbus plane were evacuated, broadcaster NHK reported.

The cause of the incident was not immediately clear, but television reports said that the Airbus collided with a Coast Guard aircraft.

Reports said that the plane had just arrived from Sapporo airport on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

A Coast Guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said they were “checking details”.

“It’s not clear if there was a collision. But it is certain that our plane is involved,” he told AFP.

The television footage showed flames coming out of windows and the plane’s nose on the ground as rescue workers sprayed it.

There was also burning debris on the runway.

More than 70 fire engines were being deployed, NHK reported.

Japan has not suffered a serious commercial aviation accident in decades.

Its worst ever was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in the central Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew.

That disaster was one of the world’s deadliest plane crashes involving a single flight.

AFP