5 killed in Japan plane collision Quake toll nears 50
News Desk :
Five people on board a Coast Guard aircraft died after a runway collision with a Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, the country’s transport minister said on Tuesday (2 January).
“Regarding the coast guard plane, we have been informed that the captain escaped and five people were confirmed dead,” Tetsuo Saito said as per news agency AFP.
Meanwhile, all 379 passengers and crew of a Japan Airlines plane escaped the fire that erupted after it collided with the Coast Guard aircraft. Public broadcaster NHK showed the aircraft erupt in flames while rescue crews attempted to control the blaze.
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida instructed relevant agencies to coordinate to assess the damage swiftly, according to his office.
The Japan Coast Guard said it was investigating the possibility that one of its aircraft collided with the passenger jet. Five out of the six crew of the coast guard aircraft who were unaccounted for following the crash were later found, news agency Reuters reported quoting NHK.
All passengers, crew on Japan Airline plane escape blaze at Tokyo airport
The pilot was evacuated, it added.
Haneda has closed all runways following the incident, a spokesperson for the airport said as per news agency Reuters.
The plane- an Airbus A-350 JAL flight 516 which flew out of Shin Chitose airport- burst into flames on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
It is reported to be hit by another aircraft after landing- possibly a Japan Coast Guard plane. NHK footage showed large eruptions of fire and smoke from the side of the Japan Airlines plane as it taxied on a runway. The plane was then entirely engulfed in fire.
All the 367 passengers plus eight toddlers and 12 crew on board the plane were safely evacuated, an airline spokesperson said as per Bloomberg.
Earlier, a powerful earthquake that hit Japan on New Year’s Day killed at least 48 people, with rescue teams struggling in freezing temperatures on Tuesday to reach isolated areas where many people are feared trapped under toppled buildings.
In Suzu, a coastal town of just over 5,000 households near the quake’s epicentre, 90 percent of houses may have been destroyed, according to its mayor Masuhiro Izumiya.
“The situation is catastrophic,” he said.
The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck on Monday afternoon, prompting people in western coastal areas to flee to higher ground as tsunami waves swept cars and houses into the water.
Around 200 tremors have been detected since the quake first hit on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which warned more strong shocks could hit in the coming days.
A Coast Guard aircraft enroute to deliver aid to the quake-hit region collided with a commercial airplane in Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday, killing five Coast Guard crew while all 379 on board the Japan Airlines flight miraculously escaped a fire.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the extent of the quake damage was becoming “increasingly clear” more than 24 hours after the quake struck on the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture.
“The government has deployed emergency rescue teams from the Self-Defence Forces, police and fire departments to the area and is doing its utmost to save lives and rescue victims and survivors, but we have received reports that there are still many people waiting to be rescued under collapsed buildings.”
Kishida said some 3,000 rescuers were finding it difficult to reach the northern tip of the peninsula where helicopter surveys had discovered many fires and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. There are around 120 cases of people awaiting rescue, his government spokesperson said.
Situated on the “Ring of Fire” arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater, and each year experiences up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt. Many rail services and flights into the area have been suspended. More than 500 people were stranded at Noto’s airport which closed due to cracks in its runway and access road and damage to its terminal building.
Authorities have confirmed 48 deaths, all in Ishikawa prefecture, making it Japan’s deadliest earthquake since 2016.
Many of those killed are in Suzu and Wajima, another city on the remote northern tip of the Noto peninsula.
Scores more have been injured and authorities were battling blazes in several cities on Tuesday and hauling people from collapsed buildings.
“I’ve never experienced a quake that powerful,” said Wajima resident Shoichi Kobayashi, 71, who was at home having a celebratory New Year’s meal with his wife and son when the quake struck, sending furniture flying across the dining room.
“Even the aftershocks made it difficult to stand up straight,” he said, adding his family were sleeping in their car because they could not return to their badly damaged home.
Fujiko Ueno, a 73-year-old resident of Nanao city in Ishikawa, said nearly 20 people were in her house for a New Year celebration when the quake struck, splintering the walls which came crashing down on a parked car.
Miraculously, no one was hurt.
