How an efficient evacuation saved 367 passengers from burning Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport

Experts said crew followed evacuation procedures in a textbook manner that stopped the plane, which hit a coastguard aircraft and caught fire, from turning into a death trap

‘Honestly, I thought we wouldn’t survive. So I texted my family and friends to say that my plane is burning, right now,’ a woman said

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A Japan Airlines plane on fire at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on January 2. Photo: Kyodo News via AP

Published: 9:22am, 4 Jan 2024Updated: 9:27am, 4 Jan 2024

After landing, smoke filled the cabin and flames licked the windows, but the Japan Airlines crew got all 367 passengers safely off the aircraft in an orderly fashion – and just in time.

Babies and children screamed and panic-stricken passengers begged to be let off, footage from the scene on Tuesday at Tokyo’s Haneda airport showed.

“Honestly, I thought we wouldn’t survive. So I texted my family and friends to say that my plane is burning, right now,” a woman told broadcaster NHK.

After arriving from Hokkaido in the north, the Japan Airlines Airbus collided with a coastguard plane and caught fire as it sped down the runway.

It careered to a halt after the front landing gear failed, but all 379 passengers and crew managed to escape down two emergency slides before the plane was engulfed in flames.

The smaller coastguard vessel was heading to deliver aid to earthquake-hit central Japan. Five of the six personnel died.