Eye catching images of an Airbus A350 engulfed in flames greeted American viewers waking up to begin their 2024, after an accidental collision occurred at the Tokyo Haneda airport.
While specifics are often long awaited in cases like these, it’s generally understood that the incident included an accidental contact between Japan Airlines JAL-516 and a Japanese Coast Guard Dash-8. The JAL aircraft carried a nearly full passenger load on a domestic flight, and the Dash-8 was running aid to the beleaguered victims of a recent earthquake in western Japan. Reports paint a depressing picture for those aboard the De Havilland: 5 crewmen perished, with the surviving Captain incurring serious injuries. Those aboard the Airbus were far luckier, with no casualties found among all 300+ passengers and crew. Their survival is a testament to the importance of evacuation procedures, and the unusually competent traveling public found in Japan. Thanks to the professional bearing of both passengers and crew, they were able to evacuate the aircraft safely, leaving the ensuing inferno a depressing swan song for those lives that were lost in the initial collision.
Blame could fly any which way at the moment, but it seems to be another high-profile case of error in the terminal environment. The Coast Guard Dash-8 had been instructed to hold short of runway 34R, and had the JAL Airbus touch down upon them. It’s unsure whether the incident is a case of poor controller handling, inadequate situational awareness on the part of either crew, or both. The incident will remain a very stark image for years to come, thanks to the near immediate burst of flames spotted on video. A modern, sleek Airbus appearing to burst into a gout of fire upon touchdown is a depressing way to start off the year, and despite happening abroad it will undoubtedly serve as an exclamation point following a year of “near misses” at home.
The fire caught quickly, destroying the A350 in dramatic and slow fashion. Haneda was shut down to accommodate the firefighting efforts, but it still took 70 fire trucks to put the blaze down into a smoldering wreck. Now, the world watches for more details, propping and critiquing the response, the procedures, and the reactions from all those involved.
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