A JAL spokesman said that although one of the pilots spotted “an object” just before the collision, he did not communicate directly with the captain of the Coast Guard plane.
The pilots said they felt an impact within seconds of the plane hitting the ground. Initially, the pilots in the cockpit were unaware of the fire until the chief flight attendant informed them and told them to open the emergency exits.
Japanese officials inspect the burned-out Airbus A350 after the collision, January 4, 2024. (Photo: VNA)
Two days after the collision, several domestic flights scheduled to arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on January 4 were canceled or delayed.
According to Hokkaido Airports, about 200 passengers were stranded overnight at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture, after another group of 256 passengers were stranded from the evening of January 2 to the morning of January 3 due to flight cancellations following the rare collision. Since the evening of January 2, Hokkaido Airports has been providing assistance to passengers by distributing sleeping bags, blankets, and mattresses.
New Chitose Airport had many flight cancellations, especially flights to Haneda Airport, with 45 flights on January 2 and 28 flights on January 3. On January 4, 18 flights from New Chitose Airport to Haneda and several other airports were scheduled to be canceled. The collision also delayed many flights from Haneda to New Chitose. Some flights were even delayed until 3 a.m. on January 4.
New Chitose Airport, which serves about 400 flights, about 100 of which are to Haneda Airport. Haneda Airport still has the runway where the collision occurred closed on New Year's Day. Shortly after the collision, JAL and All Nippon Airways also canceled some domestic flights.
Japanese police said all 379 passengers and crew on board JAL's Airbus A350 flight JL516 were safely evacuated, with no life-threatening injuries reported after the plane caught fire.
In a statement on the afternoon of January 3, officials of Japan's second-largest airline said strict adherence to emergency procedures helped save the lives of all passengers. However, five of the six crew members on the Japan Coast Guard plane were killed. The captain escaped the plane and was seriously injured.
(Source: Tin Tuc Newspaper)
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