What made the "miracle" in the plane fire in Japan

There is no word other than “miracle” to describe the escape of 379 people on Japan Airlines (JAL) flight 516 on January 2.

Videos show the passenger plane bursting into flames as it landed at Haneda airport in Tokyo after colliding with a Japan Coast Guard (JCG) aircraft.

The fire raged through the Airbus A350, and the scene inside was chaotic as the heat of the fire increased. The pilot struggled to maintain control, gradually bringing the plane to a stop as smoke began to fill the cabin.

As flames engulfed the fuselage, the 367 passengers and 12 crew members disembarked via slides in relative calm and apparently without carry-on luggage. Aviation safety regulators have long warned that stopping to pick up carry-on luggage during an evacuation poses a risk of death.

It was a “hair’s breadth” escape, a miracle that everyone got out safely. Fire crews then had to fight a blaze so fierce that it burned the entire structure of the plane.

World - What made the — A Japan Airlines Airbus A350 passenger plane is seen on fire on the runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, on January 2, 2024. Photo: Straits Times

Unfortunately, five people on board the Japan Coast Guard De Havilland Dash-8 that collided with the Airbus were killed. The pilot survived but was seriously injured. They were on their way to Niigata to provide aid to victims of the powerful New Year's Day earthquake.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent his condolences to the families of the five people killed, who he said sacrificed their lives while trying to help others. He also praised the Japan Airlines crew and passengers for their calm.

Hazard from ground collision

Investigations are now underway as the remains of the giant passenger plane smolder. One of the first tasks will be to recover the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recordings.

The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) will lead the investigation, with agencies from France, where the Airbus was built, and Britain, where the two Rolls-Royce engines were made, Reuters reported on January 3.

Experts warn that it is too early to determine the cause, stressing that most crashes are caused by multiple factors. They also say the location of the crash means physical evidence, radar data and witness accounts or camera footage are likely to be available, easing the burden on forensics.

Japan Airlines said the collision occurred almost immediately after its Airbus landed at 5:46 p.m. local time (3:46 p.m. Vietnam time) at Haneda, one of Japan's busiest airports.

The captain was cleared to land but likely could not see the smaller Dash-8 maritime patrol aircraft below, airline executives said in a late-night news conference on January 2.

“The obvious question is whether the coast guard aircraft was on the runway and, if so, why was it there,” Paul Hayes, director of aviation safety at UK-based consultancy Ascend by Cirium, told Reuters on Jan. 3.

The incident at Haneda airport was the first serious accident involving the Airbus A350 – Europe's flagship twin-engine long-haul jetliner, which entered service in 2015.

And according to preliminary 2023 data, the collision between a Japanese Coast Guard Dash-8 aircraft and a passenger plane three times its length comes after one of the safest years in aviation.

The incident also comes after the US-based Flight Safety Foundation warned last month of the risk of runway collisions and an increase in runway “incursions” as skies become more congested.

“Despite years of efforts to prevent incursions, they continue to occur,” Hassan Shahidi, CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, said in a statement. “The risk of runway incursions is a global concern and the potential consequences of an incursion are serious.”

Although ground collisions causing injury or damage have become rare, their potential for death is among the highest of any type of aviation incident, and “near misses” are becoming more common.

The collision of two Boeing 747s in Tenerife, Spain in 1977, which killed 583 people, remains the deadliest accident in global aviation history.

Preventing landing planes from hitting planes is one of the top five global safety priorities, said Steve Creamer, a former senior director at the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Despite the increasing use of automated landings, experts say they still largely rely on visual checks by pilots, who can be distracted by high workloads or blocked vision.

“I think the investigation will focus a lot on the permits … and then what the Japan Airlines crew could see. Could they see the Coast Guard aircraft on the runway,” said John Cox, a former U.S. air accident investigator.

7 star airline

While investigations into what happened in the incident that caused the plane to burst into flames in a fireball are ongoing, experts say the successful evacuation of all passengers and crew was due to a combination of modern safety standards and Japan Airlines' strict safety culture.

“From what I saw on the footage, I was surprised and relieved that everyone got out,” said Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at Cranfield University (UK).

“It was a serious impact for any aircraft to endure. But given what I know about Japan Airlines, and the level of effort they put into safety and crew training, it’s not surprising that they did such a good job.”

In fact, it was the tragic accident nearly 40 years ago that helped Japan Airlines (JAL) become such a safe airline, according to Mr. Braithwaite.

On August 12, 1985, JAL Flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka crashed, killing 520 of the 524 people on board, after Boeing technicians—not members of JAL—repaired a tail section defect following an earlier incident. To this day, it remains the deadliest single-plane crash in aviation history.

“Obviously the impact of the 1985 incident was very profound for the Japanese airline,” said Braithwaite. “In a culture like Japan, they take responsibility for it as a group and want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. So when something happens, they see it as a way to learn. Everything is an opportunity to improve.”

In 2005, realizing that many employees had joined the company with no memory of the 20-year-old accident, JAL opened a space in its headquarters to display the wreckage as well as the stories of the crew and passengers.

“There is a sense that there are people in the industry who don’t know what it’s like to make a mistake. People need to understand how much effort goes into achieving safety,” said Mr Braithwaite, adding that nearly four decades on, the crash still has a profound effect on the company’s psyche.

“They have a very strict culture of standard operating procedures and doing things the right way. That’s one of the reasons in this case I think the crew seemed to perform so well,” Braithwaite said.

While it is unclear who was responsible for the January 2 crash, Mr. Braithwaite said the successful evacuation of the entire aircraft was a positive for Japan Airlines. “If you want to know why you should fly with them, I think that’s the reason,” he said.

JAL is regularly named among the world's safest airlines in Airlineratings.com's annual list.

“Japan Airlines has had an excellent safety record since 1985. However, that accident was not the fault of the airline but the fault of a repair performed by Boeing,” said Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of Airlineratings.com.

“JAL is rated as a top 7-star airline by our website and has passed all major safety inspections. In addition, Japan's aviation safety regulator performed better than the world average in eight monitoring criteria for compliance . ”

Minh Duc (According to Reuters, CNN, PBS News)

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