Five Japanese Coast Guard personnel are dead and the command pilot seriously injured after their de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 was struck by a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 on the runway at Tokyo Haneda International Airport. Though the landing Airbus caught fire and was gutted by the flames, all 379 on board escaped with minor injuries reported.
JAL Flight 516 was arriving on a domestic flight from Sapporo at 5:47 p.m. local time on Tuesday (Jan. 2) (3:47 a.m. EST). A spokesman for the Japanese Coast Guard told CNN the Coast Guard Dash 8 was preparing for takeoff on a flight to an airbase in the prefecture of Niigata to support relief efforts related to the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on Monday.
Surveillance video posted by CNN shows the Airbus just after the collision as it burst into flames and skidded down Runway 34R with fire emanating from its nosewheel and left wing. The Dash 8 is not visible in the video. Additional video from CNN shows the smoke-filled cabin interior with passengers beginning to evacuate. All 367 passengers, including eight small children, and 12 crew members on the Airbus escaped the burning wreckage via emergency slides.
Haneda Airport has main parallel runways (16R/34L and 16L/34R) with two crosswind runways. Runway 04/22 to the north end of the airport only intersects very close to the departure end of Runway 34L. Runway 05/23 to the south does not intersect with either of the parallel runways. So, the configuration of the airport suggests that investigators will be exploring the possibility that, because the Airbus was landing on Runway 34R, the collision likely involved a runway incursion on Runway 34R by the Dash 8 for reasons not yet determined.
(This story was corrected to include updated passenger numbers, corrected time of day, and corrected runway information.)
