Passengers and Crew Miraculously Survive as Japan Airlines Plane Bursts into Flames

(ReliableNews.org) – Surviving a plane crash is not something that happens very often. Especially after two planes crash into one another. But, that’s what happened in Japan after a passenger plane collided with another flight.

On January 2, a Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 collided with a Japan Coast Guard Bombardier-built Dash 8 plane. The JAL flight departed from New Chitose Airport and landed at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. As it came in, it collided with the Coast Guard plane.

Video from the incident shows JAL Flight 516 burst into flames as it skidded down the runway. The airplane was carrying 367 passengers and 12 crew members at the time. The flight crew sprung into action after the crash., deploying the inflatable evacuation ramp, and passengers slid down to safety. In the end, the most serious injuries were bumps and bruises.

Aviation experts praised the crew and passengers for the orderly evacuation. Professor Ed Galea, the director of the University of Greenwich’s fire safety engineering group, told BBC that he didn’t “see a single passenger on the ground […] that has got their luggage with them.” He pointed out that it’s very dangerous when people try to grab their belongings.

Flight crews go through rigorous training before they are allowed to serve commercial flights, including learning how to control the volume and tone of their voice so that the passengers can hear them well. One former flight attendant said that even with the proper training, what the JAL crew pulled off is “harder than one can imagine.”

Sadly, five of the six people on board the Coast Guard plane did not survive. The 39-year-old captain of the plane suffered injuries but managed to escape the wreckage. The Coast Guard crew was responding to Japan’s west coast to help earthquake victims when it collided with the passenger jet.

Reuters reported an official with JAL said the pilot had permission to land. However, he said the exchanges the crew had with the airport’s flight control is under investigation.