TOKYO: Five Japan Coast Guard crew were killed following the collision between their aircraft and a Japan Airlines airplane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, reported Xinhua quoting local media on Tuesday.
The coast guard plane was carrying relief goods for quake-hit areas in Niigata Prefecture after a series of temblors of up to 7.6 magnitude struck central Japan on Monday afternoon, public broadcaster NHK reported citing the Japan Coast Guard.
Meanwhile all 379 passengers and crew members on board Japan Airlines were evacuated.
The airplane, flight 516 from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, collided with what appears to be a Japan Coast Guard aircraft after landing at Haneda Airport, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing
Japan Airlines.
Firefighters are extinguishing the flames, it said.
NHK footage showed a large burst of fire erupting from a side of the Japan Airlines plane as it taxied on a runway and soon
the blaze engulfed the aircraft.
According to the transport ministry, Haneda Airport has shut down all runways due to the aircraft collision.
-BERNAMA-XINHUA
