By Charlotte Kagumaho Nyebaza,
TOKYO
Five of the six crew members of the Coast Guard plane have been confirmed dead following a collision with Japan Aircraft at Haneda Airport in Tokyo Japan.
On Tuesday evening, the Japanese Aircraft with 379 passengers and crew aboard collided with Coast Guard plane on a runway at Haneda Airport. The Japanese Airlines reported that all their passengers and the crew on miraculously escaped from a fire.
However, five crew members of the Coast Guard plane were later found dead.
The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan’s west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day, killing at least 48 people.
“I felt a boom like we had hit something and jerked upward the moment we landed,” a passenger on the Japan Airlines flight told Kyodo news agency. “I saw sparks outside the window and the cabin filled with gas and smoke.”
Japan’s Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that five of the coast guard aircraft’s crew had died. The captain of the aircraft, a Bombardier-built Dash-8 maritime patrol plane, was injured.
Reports indicate that the airport has since been temporary closed to ascertain the situation.
