More than three hundred flights canceled due to collision of two planes at Tokyo airport

Tokyo (Uttam Hindu News): Japan Airlines have been forced to cancel more than 300 flights after a collision between a Japan Coast Guard plane and a Japan Airlines passenger plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday evening. The accident forced the airport to close all runways for several hours yesterday evening. Due to the closure, 226 flights to and from Haneda had to be cancelled, affecting more than 40,000 passengers. Despite the reopening of three runways on Wednesday, around 100 flights are still expected to be cancelled, disrupting the travel plans of 19,000 passengers.

It is noteworthy that at around 6 pm local time on Tuesday, Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 516, an Airbus A-350 which took off from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture, was landing on the C-runway of Haneda when the Coast Guard flight The MA-722 collided with a Bombardier Dash-8, causing both aircraft to catch fire. Five of the six crew members aboard the MA-722 were confirmed dead, while the captain was seriously injured. According to Coast Guard spokesman Yoshinori Yanagishima, Coast Guard aircraft, following the earthquake that struck central Japan on Monday afternoon, It was operating on a runway to deliver relief supplies to earthquake-hit areas in Niigata Prefecture. Meanwhile, the JAL plane caught fire after the collision.

The Tokyo Fire Department said it took more than eight hours to extinguish the fire after the crash. National broadcaster NHK, citing sources at Japan’s transport ministry, said Haneda air traffic controllers had ordered the passenger plane off the runway before the crash occurred. Permission was given to land and the Coast Guard aircraft were ordered to stay away from the runway. The Japan Transport Safety Board, a government-affiliated agency that investigates serious accidents involving airplanes, trains and ships, on Wednesday began investigating the cause of the crash and examining the wreckage of the plane.