Investigation begins into deadly plane collision at Tokyo airport

Authorities have launched a formal investigation into the cause of Tuesday night’s collision between a Japanese passenger jet and a Japanese coast guard plane on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, killing five coast guard crewmembers.

The Japan Airlines Airbus A-350 jetliner had just arrived from the country’s northern Hokkaido island with 379 passengers and crew on board.

Video showed a burst of flames on one side of the plane as it rolled down the runway. The plane eventually became fully engulfed as it came to a stop, with flames shooting out windows and the fuselage as firefighters battled the inferno.

All of the passengers and crew managed to escape the burning plane using inflatable slides just minutes before it was destroyed. Cellphone video taken by passengers showed fire underneath the wing, as well as passengers evacuating as the cabin filled with smoke.

The pilot of the coast guard twin-engine propeller plane, built by aircraft maker de Havilland Canada, was the only crewmember who escaped. The plane was on its way to the Japanese west coast to deliver emergency aid for the survivors of the deadly earthquake that struck Monday.

Investigators with Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department and Japan’s Safety Transport Board have begun looking into the collision. Japanese news outlets say the police investigation will consider whether the disaster was due to professional negligence. Airbus said it was sending specialists to assist in the investigation.

Experts are also heading to Japan from France, where the Airbus jetliner was built. A spokesperson for Japan Airlines says the crew had received permission from flight controllers at Haneda to land. Haneda Airport is one of the busiest in the world, due to its close proximity to central Tokyo.