The evacuation is like a textbook
People in the discussion described the scene of hell after the Japan Airlines plane caught fire when landing at Haneda Airport, Tokyo on January 2, 2024. However, experts said the crew and passengers had been urgently evacuated according to textbooks and the successful evacuation saved all 379 people on board.
A Airbus-A350 operated by Japan Airlines and a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft collided on the runway at Haneda airport and both caught fire, killing five of the six people on the military aircraft.
However, despite the severity of the fire, all 379 people, including 12 crew members, escaped safely before the Airbus sank into the sea of fire, said Japanese Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito.
The perfect evacuation on a Japan Airlines plane has surprised the whole world and won many compliments. The aviation experts and the crew told the BBC that this means the crew has conducted rigorous training and the passengers are following safety procedures well.
I dont see any passengers on the ground, in any of the videos Ive seen, carrying their luggage with me... If people try to take their carry-on baggage, its really dangerous because theyre slowing down the evacuation process, said Professor Ed Galea, Director of the Fire Prevention and Fighting Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras told BBC that the crew educe an evacuation according to textbooks just minutes after the collision. He praised the crew for successfully identifying escape routes, helping everyone escape as quickly as possible.
Safety advisor John Cox told AP news agency that the crew did a great job of getting the passengers out of the plane. That shows good coaching. If you watch the video, you will see that no one is carrying their luggage, everyone is just focusing on getting off the plane, Mr. Cox said.
The pilot and reporter Pete Muntean said the accident represented a major failure in "Japan's safety culture is paramount", but added that what happened afterwards was "an evacuation according to the textbook of the Japan Airlines crew".
An unnamed pilot of a Southeast Asian airline commented that the rigorous training process that the crew went through helped the evacuation go quickly.
"I have to say it was great.You really don't have time to think in situations like this, so you just do what you've been trained to do," the unnamed pilot said.
For any passenger plane to be internationally certified, plane manufacturers must prove that everyone in the holdings can leave the plane within 90 seconds.
Horrifying experience
A female passenger described the cabin as dark and hot as the fire broke out after landing. She told NHK TV: "In a terrible hot plane and honestly, I thought I wouldn't survive."
A 28-year-old male passenger returning from a trip to Hokkaido jumped from his seat due to a collision while landing. He told Nikkei Asia: "We have successfully evacuated. It was a miracle that we survived.
The crew continuously asked passengers to sit still on the spot, while covering their noses and mouths with a gas mask.
When the escape route was opened, passengers panicked, some of them shouted, "Kill us out of here". All passengers and crew members finally slid down the escape route to escape the fire.
Passenger William Manzione shared a photo on social media shortly after the evacuation, saying that everyone was safe and taken to the station.
"We have returned home safely. It was a pity to hear about the Coast Guard, but I witnessed the wonderful actions of the Japan Airlines crew in bringing everyone on board to safety, Manzione wrote in a further post.
The airline said at least four people had been taken to a medical facility following the incident.
Japan Airlines CEO Tadayuki Tsutsumi said at a press conference on the evening of January 2 that the A350 had landed normally on the runway without specifying how it collided with the military aircraft. The airline confirmed that the flight had been given permission to land by aviation authorities.
Japanese authorities are investigating the cause of the collision and analyzing communication between aviation control officials and the two aircraft. The police have also opened an investigation into possible negligence.
