Japan’s Transportation Safety Board and police launched a separate investigation into the Tokyo plane crash on Wednesday. International news agencies report this. A day earlier, a large Japan Airlines passenger plane with 367 passengers on board and a Japanese Coast Guard plane collided. Both planes were on the same runway at Haneda airport and burst into flames. All five crew members of the coast guard aircraft died as a result of the accident.
Both pilots say they have received permission from air traffic controllers to use the runway. The passenger plane was landing at the time and the Coast Guard aircraft was preparing to take off. The Security Council is trying to find out what went wrong in the communication between the pilots and air traffic controllers. The police are also investigating possible professional negligence. For example, on Wednesday they inspected the rubble on the runway and questioned the parties involved.
The pilot of the small plane was able to escape just in time, but was injured. All 367 passengers and 12 crew members, including the pilot of the large plane, survived the plane fire. Within twenty minutes, all people on board managed to leave the plane using three emergency slides.
Experts that the BBC has spoken call it a “flawless evacuation.” The aviation experts and flight crew told the news channel that the evacuation was successful due to the rigorous training they received and that the passengers adhered to safety protocols.
According to the director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich, Ed Galea, it was not an easy escape. “It was difficult for the passengers to move because the plane was nose down,” Galea told BBC News. The three emergency slides were also very steep and the flight crew had to convey instructions via a megaphone.