Five dead in plane collision at Tokyo airport

A passenger plane caught fire Tuesday on a runway at Tokyo-Haneda International Airport after colliding with another plane.

All 379 passengers and crew members were evacuated, but five of the six occupants of a Japanese coast guard plane died, the Transport Minister announced.

Videos posted on X showed passengers escaping the burning cabin by sliding down inflatable escape slides. Debris littered the airport tarmac and more than 70 fire engines were deployed on site.

“All runways at the airport were closed and dozens of flights were canceled,” an airport spokesperson said.

Tokyo-Haneda, one of the Japanese capital’s two international airports, is one of the busiest in the world. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asked relevant agencies to coordinate to quickly assess the damage and promptly provide information to the public.

This incident occurs when Japan was already stunned by the immense earthquake which occurred the day before in the Noto peninsula, in the center of the country, and which left at least 48 dead according to a new provisional report.