Key Points
- All 379 people aboard a Japan Airlines plane escaped a fire caused by a collision with a Coast Guard plane.
- Five of six crew members of the Coast Guard plane have died.
- An aviation expert has praised the "miracle" evacuation of the Japan Airlines plane.
Only eight Australians were on the Japan Airlines plane that burst into flames rather than the 12 initially suspected.
All Australians involved in the crash are safe and accounted for, cabinet minister Mark Butler has confirmed.
"The initial advice from the airline itself and from consular officials was that there might have been up to 12 Australians on the Japanese airline plane that was involved in that crash," he told reporters on Thursday.
"This has obviously been a terrible week for our friends in Japan with the New Year's Day quake that has cast a very, very serious death toll in that country and then the plane crash at Haneda Airport in Tokyo."
All 379 people on board the flight escaped the burning airliner after it collided with a coast guard patrol plane on the runway on Tuesday.
Australia has offered to provide any support Japan needs, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
The collision killed five of six crew on the smaller aircraft.
Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the JAL Airbus A350 airliner burst into flames as it skidded down the tarmac shortly before 6pm.
Video and images shared on social media showed passengers shouting inside the plane's smoke-filled cabin and running across the tarmac after escaping via an evacuation slide.
At one point a child's voice can be heard shouting: "Let us get out quickly! Let us get out quickly!"
The fire was not extinguished until shortly after midnight, after burning for more than six hours, broadcaster TBS reported citing the fire department.
"I was wondering what happened and then I felt the airplane tilted to the side at the runway and felt a big bump," said Satoshi Yamake, 59, a telecommunications company worker who was on board.
"The flight attendants told us to stay calm and instructed us to get off the plane."
Fourteen people on Japan Airlines plane injured
Fourteen people on the passenger plane were injured, according to Japan Airlines, but none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that five of the Coast Guard aircraft's crew had died, while the 39-year-old captain of the plane escaped but was injured.
A ministry official told a press briefing the JAL plane was attempting to land normally when it collided with the Coast Guard's Bombardier-built Dash-8 maritime patrol plane on the runway.
A Japan Airlines plane caught fire on the runway of Haneda airport on Tuesday. Source: AAP / AP
The Coast Guard said its plane was headed to Niigata on Japan's west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year's Day, killing at least 55 people.
A JAL official told a press briefing it was the airline's understanding that the flight had received permission to land, although he added that exchanges with flight control were still under investigation.
'It was a miracle'
Passengers and aviation experts praised the speed of the evacuation.
"I heard an explosion about 10 minutes after everyone and I got off the plane," said 28-year-old passenger Tsubasa Sawada.
"I can only say it was a miracle, we could have died if we were late."
Paul Hayes, director of air safety at UK-based aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium, noted that no one leaving the plane appeared to be carrying hand luggage. Safety agencies have warned for years that pausing to collect carry-on bags during an evacuation risks lives.
"The cabin crew must have done an excellent job ... It was a miracle that all the passengers got off," he said.
The aircraft's in-flight announcement system did not work during the evacuation, so crew members used megaphones to give instructions, Japan Airlines said in a statement.
Five people on board the Japanese Coast Guard aircraft died after it collided with a Japan Airlines plane. Source: AAP / ã‡éqëÏìn/AP
"She said the plane had caught fire and she exited via a slide," Ishii said. "I was really relieved that she was alright."
A JAL spokesperson said its aircraft had departed from New Chitose airport on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.
Investigation underway
Based on interviews with the flight crew, the airline said the crew acknowledged landing clearance from air traffic control, repeated it back to confirm and then conducted approach and landing operations.
"There were no issues with the aircraft at the time of departure from the New Chitose Airport and during the flight," the airline said.
It was not immediately possible to determine clearly the sequence of instructions issued in the moments before the crash from multi-channel recordings available on liveatc.net.
The air traffic control monitoring website captured a controller telling all approaching pilots shortly after the impact: "Airport is closed, Haneda airport is closed".
Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito said the cause of the accident was unclear and the Japan Transport Safety Board, police and other departments would continue to investigate.
