- A passenger on the Japan Airlines plane that caught fire spoke to The New York Times.
- He said passengers largely remained calm despite the intense danger.
A passenger described how people on a Japan Airlines flight that collided with a plane while landing remained calm and evacuated the jet even as a blaze erupted.
Speaking to The New York Times, Anton Deibe, 17, said he and his family were flying to Tokyo on JAL flight 516 when it collided with a small coast guard plane while landing at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Tuesday.
He told the outlet he was putting his coat in his bag as the plane landed when he noticed something wrong. "When I bent down, I could feel that it was extremely hot on the left side of my face. I looked to the left and saw fire and smoke outside all the windows on the left."
Deibe, who's Swedish, told the Times it was unclear what'd happened, and thought the plane had hit a bird. In fact, the jet had collided with a coast guard plane on the runway, killing five of its crew, and had burst into flames.
"Everyone started yelling in Japanese. I didn't understand anything," he said. Still, "there was a lot less commotion than I would have thought. The passengers were calm. Everyone was worried and scared, of course."
Deibe said acrid smoke began filling the cabin, but people didn't panic and followed rules to avoid smoke inhalation, remaining close to the ground.
"They were screaming in Japanese. We were all bent over. I think people crawled. I think that's what we were supposed to do. People crawled behind me. In front of me, I couldn't see anything. Everything went so damn fast. Dad crouched in front of me. I did the same. My sister was right behind me." Their mother followed behind, Deibe told the Times.
After escaping the plane down an inflatable slide, passengers ran away to safety. All 379 people on the plane survived, with only 14 suffering minor injuries.
Aviation safety experts have praised the JAL crew for evacuating the plane calmly under immense pressure, and passengers for following protocol and not taking hand baggage with them when they left the plane.
JAL said in a statement that cabin crew were able to evacuate the plane in 18 minutes. Shortly after the last person left, the plane was completely consumed by fire.
Officials are investigating the cause of the crash, with reports saying lights designed to indicate when a runway is in use had malfunctioned, and the coast guard plane had not been cleared for takeoff.