Miraculous Escape for Almost 400 Passengers After Planes Collide in Japan

Almost 400 passengers of a Japan Airlines plane miraculously survived after it collided with another plane on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday evening.

Flight 516, which had taken off from Hokkaido in northern Japan nearly two hours earlier, is believed to have been involved in a collision with a Japanese coastguard plane while landing. Japanese media report that one person onboard the coastguard plane escaped, while the other five remain unaccounted for.

Video: a JAL plane caught fire while landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport this evening. Fire crews are on scene trying to extinguish the blaze. pic.twitter.com/YCVB4tPMRL

— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 2, 2024

All 379 people on board the plane, including passengers and crew, have been safely evacuated, according to Japan Airlines. As per the flight tracking site, FlightAware, the flight was an Airbus A350-900.

First Visuals From Inside The Plane .
BREAKING: Japan Airlines plane with 367 people on board collides with Coast Guard plane at Tokyo Airport#Japan #Tokyo #Japon pic.twitter.com/8lHvcVUsr2

— MOhammad ZAin (@Mohammadzain_) January 2, 2024

Live footage showed passengers fleeing the aircraft using inflatable slides and running away from the burning plane and across the tarmac. The aircraft is now entirely destroyed by the flames with air crews still battling to bring the blaze under control.

Japan’s coastguard says its aircraft, which is thought to have collided with the passenger jet, was on its way to Niigata Airport to deliver aid to the earthquake-hit Noto peninsula, according to the news agency Reuters.

Plane delivering aid after powerful earthquake in Japan

The number of people killed in a powerful earthquake in Japan which caused homes to collapse and triggered tsunami warnings is now known to be 48.

Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by Monday’s quake and subsequent fires. Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, says the quake has caused numerous casualties, and they face a “race against time” to rescue survivors.

There have been numerous aftershocks as emergency workers search for people feared to be trapped under rubble.

Japanese PM Kishida has ordered army personnel to help with the relief effort, which is being hampered by extensive damage to roads.

Kishida’s chief cabinet secretary has warned people to “be alert” for more earthquakes in the coming week.

The government says just over 57,000 people have been evacuated. Tens of thousands of households remain without power.

Japan 2011 earthquake and tsunami

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 to 9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region.

It lasted approximately six minutes, causing a tsunami. It is sometimes known in Japan as the “Great East Japan Earthquake.”

The most recent one was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded worldwide since modern seismography began in 1900.

The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 133 feet (40.5 meters) in Miyako in Tōhoku’s Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 435 miles per hour (700 kilometers per hour) and up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland.

Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away.

The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured, and 2,553 people missing, and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due for permanent relocation.