How an efficient evacuation saved 367 passengers from burning Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport

After arriving from Hokkaido in the north, the Japan Airlines Airbus collided with a coastguard plane and caught fire as it sped down the runway.

It careered to a halt after the front landing gear failed, but all 379 passengers and crew managed to escape down two emergency slides before the plane was engulfed in flames.

The smaller coastguard vessel was heading to deliver aid to earthquake-hit central Japan. Five of the six personnel died.

Did human error cause deadly Tokyo plane crash? Japan investigates

Those on board JAL’s Airbus liner feared that could have been their fate.

“It felt like we abruptly hit something. Then the fire started, like, ‘bang!’” a male passenger told broadcaster TBS.

“The smell of smoke was in the air, and the doors were not opening. So I think everyone panicked,” a woman told reporters at the airport.

Eight children were on board the passenger plane. In one video clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: “Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god.”

The plane landed at 5:46pm local time and everyone was off just under 20 minutes later, Japan Airlines told a briefing on Tuesday night.

02:31

Five killed after coastguard plane collides with Japan Airlines passenger jet at Haneda airport

Five killed after coastguard plane collides with Japan Airlines passenger jet at Haneda airport

Aviation experts said it was a carefully rehearsed and executed evacuation that stopped the plane from turning into a death trap.

“Passengers seemed to have followed instructions in a textbook manner,” Terence Fan, an airline industry expert from Singapore Management University said, with others praising those on board for leaving their cabin bags behind.

“This is exactly what evacuation policies are designed for – the airframe itself is not meant to survive the blaze, ultimately.”

Tokyo plane collision: French forensic experts to probe accident that killed 5

David Kaminski-Morrow, air transport editor at aviation news website FlightGlobal said: “I wouldn’t personally call the successful evacuation of the JAL flight a ‘lucky escape’, although the passengers might believe so.”

Instead, he added, an efficient evacuation showed “what can be achieved by evacuating promptly and efficiently”.

Passenger William Manzione told Sky News that “everything was really quick”.

“When I saw the inflatable slide, I understood this was bad. I took my son … Then I turned around and saw the aeroplane with the nose completely smashed and the flames all over the back,” he said.

After 10 minutes on the tarmac, the flames had spread and a loud noise, like at take-off, came from one of the engines.

“That was the biggest moment of fear for me and the other passengers, because the feeling was like, ‘this is about to explode’,” he said.

“The crew in that moment start shouting to run altogether away from the aeroplane, [but] eventually nothing happens, so it’s good.”

Other emotional footage showed a mother waiting for her teenage son who was on the plane, rushing to hug him when he emerged.

And a young boy expressed his relief and gratitude to the cameras: “To people at JAL and to God, I want to say thank you so much.”