On Tuesday night (2nd January), Japan Airlines flight 516 caught fire while landing in Tokyo’s Haneda airport after colliding with a coast guard plane.
Five of six people died on the coast guard plane that was enroute to provide earthquake disaster relief. However, all passengers including the crew onboard the JA flight were rescued safely.
Videos viral on social media showed sparks emanating from the plane the very moment it landed on the tarmac. In seconds, flames began to engulf the plane.
Footage from inside the plane showed smoke filling the cabin while the crew gave instructions to the passengers. However, the smoke was light and hence did not lead to any suffocation.
Experts have lauded the efforts of the cabin crew for the smooth evacuation. Channel News Asia (CNA) quoted experts saying that passengers followed emergency protocols as old and did not try to take their belongings.
Master class on plane crash survival
— D Prasanth Nair (@DPrasanthNair) January 3, 2024
Learning on discipline and how to help yourself and others. #Japan #JapanAirlines
Rcvd from WA pic.twitter.com/unSz9MTCqE
Moreover, the aircraft’s exit slides worked despite being used to their full capacity. This enabled all 367 passengers and 12 crew members to exit in 90 seconds. No one suffered any major injury.
CNA quoted Assistant professor of aviation and integrated systems engineering Shawn Pruchnicki from Ohio State University saying that the speed of evacuation was “amazing”.
He pointed that if the evacuation was indeed in 90 seconds then that could be owing to the passengers not trying to grab their luggage.
Pruchnicki said that one major hindrance during evacuation in such situations is that people try to grab their bags before departing. Luggage is also potentially damaging to the inflated exit slides.
Mr Desmond Ross, managing director of aviation and air transport consultancy Ireland Pegasus Aviation Advisors said, “The flight attendants on the aircraft have done a marvellous job in opening the doors and actually mustering the passengers to get them to the doors. It’s only from that moment that it got a little confusing with people trying to run down the slides instead of sliding down them.”
“But it is truly remarkable that they were able to achieve that without any major injuries,” he said.
It is a standard operating procedure for designers of the aircraft to give a demonstration that passengers can exit the plane in 90-second.
Mr Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of airline safety website Airlineratings.com reportedly said that aircraft are certified up to a level whereby all passengers can exit in 90 seconds using only half the emergency slides.
“In this case, I could only see three slides deployed, and there are about 10 (exits with) five exits on either side. So this is an amazing escape (and) a miracle,” Thomas said.
Experts also pointed out that the high quality modern materials used in the making of the aircraft also helped. They pointed that even though the plane was charred, its parts were intact.
The pilot of the Japanese Airlines flight halted the skidding aircraft on its nose while the crew issued instructions through phone as the PA system was damaged.
The passengers were also seated with composure heeding instructions.
A pilot and founder of a US-based aviation safety consultancy, John Cox reportedly said that the cabin crew “did a remarkably great job”. “It shows good training. And if you look at the video, people are not trying to get stuff out of the overheads. They are concentrating on getting out of the plane.”
Videos of evacuation showed people sliding on the exit slides and running across the tarmac to safey while the fire continued to spread even as firefighters were trying to put out the flames.
The reason behind the collision between the two aircraft remains unclear. Investigation is underway.
In 1985, a Japan Airlines flight crashed into a mountain near Tokyo killing 520 people marking the worst accident in the history aviation disasters.
