Watching the footage of the Japan Airlines plane engulfed in flames at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, it seems miraculous that all of the 367 passengers and 12 cabin crew members survived the accident.
How did it happen?
The Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 erupted into orange fireball as it collided with a smaller coast guard plane, a Bombardier Dash-8, while landing. The pilot of the coast guard plane escaped, but tragically, five crew members died. All of the passengers and crew members onboard the Airbus A350 survived the horrifying accident.
While investigations are ongoing, but the transcripts of conversations with the control tower indicate that the passenger plane was given permission to land while the coastguard plane had not been cleared for take-off.
The miraculous escape
From the moment the Japan Airlines passenger jet collided with a smaller plane on the runway on January 3, 2024, it took the crew nearly 18 minutes to get all 367 travellers safely off the plane.
Experts say the successful evacuation was the combination of modern airline safety standards and rigorous safety culture of Japan Airlines. Airbus spokesperson said that JAL cabin crew should be highly commended for their textbook evacuation.
Even as flames engulfed the outside windows and smoke filled the inside, the attendants evacuated all 367 passengers through the three exit doors, sending them down the emergency slides one by one.
Japanese airline officials said crew followed emergency procedures meticulously, starting with panic control.
Cabin attendants called out to passengers to remain calm as they decided which of the eight emergency exits were safe. They then used short commands such as “leave your luggage”and “not this door”, officials said.
Most passengers left behind everything except their phones, capturing the terrifying scenes of the accident and the great escape.
Pausing to collect carry-on baggage risks lives during an evacuation, according to aviation safety agencies.
“I’m sure all of you have the experience of being asked on flights not to take your carry-on items in the case of an emergency evacuation,” Noriyuki Aoki, senior vice president of general affairs, said at a media briefing. “This was followed to the tee, including with the cooperation of the passengers, and we believe that led to the swift evacuation.”
After ensuring that all passengers had slid down safely, the crew and pilots completed the evacuation at 6:05 p.m. (0905 GMT), about 18 minutes after landing. Those 18 minutes included a glide of about two-thirds of a mile down the runway before the plane came to a stop and the evacuation slides were rolled, said Yasuo Numahata, a spokesman for Japan Airlines.
It took firefighters more than six hours to extinguish the blaze that engulfed the JAL jet.
Calm and order eased evacuation
Even as the flames continued to engulf the Japan Airlines plane, passengers remained calm and followed safety instructions that led to swift evacuation.
There were screams inside the plane but “mostly people were calm and didn’t stand up from their seats but kept sitting and waiting,” said Aruto Iwama, a passenger told The Guardian newspaper in a video interview. “That’s why I think we were able to escape smoothly.”
Japan Airlines officials also praised the passengers for the orderly exit from a full flight that included eight pre-school children.
Some passengers credited the swift evacuation drill with saving their lives. “I heard an explosion about 10 minutes after everyone and I got off the plane,” said 28-year-old Tsubasa Sawada. “I can only say it was a miracle, we could have died if we were late.”
Experts praise excellent job by cabin crew
Global aviation experts said that the unshakeable composure demonstrated by the flight attendants combined with the high level of cooperation among passengers probably prevented a major disaster.
“The cabin crew must have done an excellent job. There don’t seem to be any carry-ons. It was a miracle that all the passengers got off,” said Paul Hayes, director of air safety at the UK-based aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium.
John Cox, a pilot and founder of a US-based aviation safety consultancy, said the cabin crew “did a remarkably great job” getting passengers off the plane quickly, which 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 aeroplane.”
Safety lessons learned from 1985 catastrophe
The level of preparedness and precautions by the crew demonstrate the rigorous safety training of the airline as well as the sense of responsibility of the Japanese people.
“From what I saw on the footage, I was surprised and relieved that everyone got out,” says Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at the UK’s Cranfield University. “It’s such a severe impact for any aircraft to have to withstand. But knowing what I know about that airline, and how much effort they put into safety and into crew training, the fact that they did do such a good job shouldn’t be such a surprise.
What prepared the Japanese airline crew was its own catastrophe nearly 40 years ago.
In August 1985, when Osaka-bound JAL flight 123 crashed into a mountain shortly after take-off from Tokyo Haneda, only four out of 524 people on board survived the crash. It was later revealed that the accident was attributed to faulty repair work by Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer.
This deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history has turned Japan Airlines into a safe airline. The airline’s record has been impeccable since then.