Five people aboard a Japan Coast Guard aircraft died Tuesday when it hit a Japan Airlines passenger plane on the ground in a fiery collision at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
State broadcaster NHK has also reported five dead. The captain escaped but is severely injured, it adds.
It’s believed the coastguard aircraft, which was taking food to areas hit by Monday’s powerful earthquake, collided with the Japan Airlines plane as it landed on the runway.
All 379 passengers and crew on board the passenger plane which burst into flames were safely evacuated, Japanese transport minister Tetsuo Saito told reporters.
But five of the six crew members from the smaller plane — bound for central Japan after Monday’s huge earthquake — died, Saito said.
The captain escaped and survived but was injured, he said, cautioning that “we’re not at the stage to explain the cause” of the accident.
Television and unverified footage shared on social media showed the Japan Airlines (JAL) airliner moving along the runway before a large eruption of orange flames and black smoke burst from beneath and behind it.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed that five of the six crew on the coastguard plane died while trying to get help to people affected by yesterday’s earthquake.
He extended his condolences to those who died while trying to serve people in need in the Noto area of Ishikawa prefecture.
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