Japan: Five dead after two planes collide at Tokyo’s biggest airport | DW News

Japan: Five dead after two planes collide at Tokyo’s biggest airport | DW News

What we don’t understand while there is one aircraft on the runway while a second aircraft should be on the same Runway the fire enveloped the entire fuselage and so everything went up 379 people including 367 passengers and 12 crew members were safely evacuated the target time is 90 seconds

And they seem to have achieved That welcome to the show it’s good to have you with us the year is only two days old and Japan has already had to deal with as many tragedies after a devastating earthquake on New Year’s Day January 2nd saw a passenger plane collide with a small Coast Co guard

Aircraft at Tokyo’s biggest airport both planes burst into flames while all 379 passengers and crew of the Japan Airlines plane managed to safely evacuate before the Airbus burned out only one of the six people on the Coast Guard Plane survived tramatic scenes at Tokyo’s Hana airport this is the moment a passenger

Aircraft burst into flames after colliding with the Coast Guard Plane on the runway all 379 passengers and crew aboard the larger plane were evacuated but those in the smaller craft were unfortunately not so lucky the Coast Guard flight was on its way to deliver relief for those affected

By the earthquake that hit the other side of the island on New Year’s Day Japan’s prime minister offered these words for those who lost their lives these people had carried out their jobs with a strong sense of Duty and responsibility for the disaster stricken areas and victims this is a very unfortunate

Incident and I would like to offer my sincere condolences while expressing my respect and gratitude for their sense of Duty this footage was shot by someone inside the passenger plane as it filled up with smoke experts say it’s remarkable that everyone on The Airliner managed to escape to Safety in an evacuation

Ideally you want all of the exit open you want all of the slides to deploy normally you want everyone to get down the slides rapidly uh it appears to me that door was not used in the evacuation so that’s that’s even more remarkable at least 70 fire trucks were

Deployed to extinguish the blaze which burned the plane down to just its fuselage the chain of events that led to the accident are not yet known Japanese authorities say an investigation is underway let’s bring in Step Wright he’s a professor of Aviation at tampo University in Finland good to see you we

Have seen the images this is the stuff every traveler’s nightmares are made of how do you think all people on board the Airbus manage to escape a disaster like this uh good evening I think that this is a really good example of what happens when the passengers listen carefully to

The crew that they’ve been in this terrible incident and uh they’ve then uh listened carefully to the cabin attendants that are in the aircraft realized that something terrible is happening and then got out in that critical time how long do people have to get off an aircraft in the event of a massive

Fire like the one we saw in Tokyo well that’s a good question um the aircraft are designed to get everybody out uh in fact to make a new plane you have to certify and show that everybody gets out in 90 seconds or less and that also takes into account doors being

Unavailable the reality is that when you start adding fire and smoke that time increases quite significantly almost double but the reality is 90 seconds if you can get out in that first 90 seconds your chances of surviving level are much greater passengers say they were told by

Air crew members not to open certain doors how would air crew members especially in a scenario that confusing full of panic I’m assuming make the call where to get out and where not it’s quite straightforward actually because all the doors have got windows in them and as part of the ground

Training for all pilots and cabin crew you have to look through the window before before you open a door for this exact reason this isn’t the first time that an evacuation has taken place and that there’s been fire outside I can real lost a long list of other um events

Where similar occurrences have happened and it’s important that the door stays closed when there is a fire in the immediate vicinity because if you do open the door the fire then penetrates the passenger cabin that much faster it was dark on landing and now that you talk about the windows Landing

Protocol is lights in the cabin dimmed and window blinds open why is that so important is it just for the crew to be able to see out or does it also involve the passengers keeping an eye out for anything that might strike them as as strange or or worrying wait you’re you’re absolutely

Correct that the window blinds must be up legally they’ve got to be up and that’s so that whoever’s inside the aircraft can actually look outside uh for this post crash fire type scenario and that’s for both pass passengers and crew and likewise you dim the lights so if the aircraft was incredibly bright

And then you had to evacuate into the dead of night where you’ve got very little light potentially this would slow this 90c magic window down because you you know your eyes have to adjust so therefore by lowering the lights before landing and take off it means that if in

The unlikely case that you do have to get out quickly this isn’t a problem the passenger aircraft was an Airbus a350 what can you tell us about that model and how it might have played a role in this not becoming a bigger tragedy because it’s a fairly modern

Plane yeah it’s a really new plane um these are the latest generation of aircraft at the moment so they have large amounts of Composites which are modern materials uh they’re using less metallic material and they’re much stronger than the traditional aircraft that I certainly started my career

Working with and what this means is that because the aircraft’s just that little bit newer and that A Little Bit Stronger that it has it’s performed remarkably when it struck another aircraft yes there’s been uh a fuel leak yes there has been a fire um in the events afterwards but the main structural

Rigidity of the aircraft and the wings and so on this has actually allowed the aircraft to come to a safe stop this has allowed all the passengers and the crew of the a350 to get out the aircraft in that in that time period and that’s why we’re so lucky that the passengers on

This case um all got out safely now was stepen Wright of T University in Finland thank you so much for your assessment thank you Julian Bray is an aviation expert and journalist based in Cambridge in the UK and joins us now Mr Bray welcome to

DW this un folded on the ground at one of the biggest airports in the world how could something like this happen yes you might well ask because uh my understanding is that possibly the smaller aircraft which was a deavin das8 was actually on the same Runway as the incoming Japan Airways Airbus

A350 uh 900 series now the Japan Airlines uh aircraft is a fairly new aircraft and uh so it would have right away if you like and so we need to establish why the smaller aircraft was put In Harm’s Way or perhaps there was a breakdown in Communications now it has

Been said that the transponder on the smaller aircraft the -8 wasn’t working but this is pure speculation and this will all come out in the investigation uh which of course is already uh started MH the Airbus was quickly engulfed in flames as was the smaller plane how do

You think all the passengers on the Airbus and the crew of course were able to get out so quickly this is rehearsed time and time again and the cabin staff and the entire crew their main priority is to keep you a passenger safe and so the target time

Is 90 seconds to evacuate a huge aircraft now they have um inflatable shoots which are put out from both sides uh that is if it’s possible and then you’ll find that the crew will assist you to get down the shoots now we’ve actually seen it where there’ve been previous instance where people had

Stopped they started filming the cabin and sort of trying to get their luggage and everything else so the lesson for this has to be get straight to the shoot leave everything behind don’t wait just get off that aircraft and once you’re outside the aircraft run away from it

Don’t walk run away from it and hopefully that message is now uh very firmly in everybody’s thinking now this Airbus hit the smaller Coast Guard Plane both of them burst into flames the Airbus of course a huge a massive aircraft five people died on that Coast Guard Plane but one person

Made it out alive how was that that possible given the intensity of the crash again this is speculation but uh we understand it might been the pilot that that managed to get out it really depends what they’re carrying I understand the dash8 was actually full of Emergency Equipment destined for the

Earthquake zone so it might have been quite a full load and that might have hampered the Escape Routes for the people sitting in the back with it we just don’t know this and this will come out in the investigation but very clearly that smaller aircraft which

Belonged to the Coast Guard s should not have been on that Runway and that is the main thrust of the investigation at the moment to find out why it was there now it’s quite interesting because you see pictures of the A3 uh50 and it’s completely Al light all the way along

The fuser LS the hole if you like but with modern materials the inside which is pressurized they managed to keep the flame out of uh the inside so the passengers were safe they managed to get all the passengers off all the crew off everybody evacuated and so 379 people so

It’s a very full aircraft uh their lives were saved so thank you uh to the crew because you did a wonderful job there how much of a role did it play that this is one of the most modern large pass planes that this did not turn into a bigger

Tragedy I think you’ve hit the nail on the head because it’s h built of modern carbon fiber materials and it’s got a great degree of insulation uh it’s light because they use lighter materials these days but the point was that uh on impact

You saw it was on fire as it came in and uh but even so the passengers inside were still safe there only when you break through that barrier and the fire comes inside then you have a big problem but they managed to get the slides out

Get the doors open and get everybody off that aircraft and that is the whole point you’ll find that when these things happen the emergency lights come on there’s an emergency procedure and thankfully everybody actually followed it we actually seeing the video now as it came in and that aircraft was well

And truly a light but the point was the Flames were on the outside not on the inside so when it finally came to a halt they were able to get these shoots inflated and out it happens very quickly and they literally manhandle manhandle you out onto the slide and away they

Will probably have a member of Staff uh at at the foot of the shoot because some people will be injured as they go down because it’s quite a rough process but the point is it’s to save lives so um you have to give a little you might say

As Aviation expert and journalist Julian BR thank you so much thank you

The year is only two days old and Japan has already had to deal with as many tragedies. After a devastating earthquake on New Year’s Day, January 2nd saw a passenger plane collide with a small coast guard aircraft at Tokyo’s biggest airport. Both planes burst into flames. While all 379 passengers and crew of the Japan Airlines plane managed to safely evacuate before the Airbus burned out, only one of the six people on the coastguard plane survived.

For more on this, we talk to Stephen Wright. He’s a professor of aviation at Tampere University in Finland.

And we talk to aviation expert and journalist Julian Bray, who joins us from Cambridge in the UK.

#Japan #Airplane #Collision

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