Japan Plane Engulfed In Flames After Collision

By: Nibin Varghese

  Imagine yourself getting ready to take a plane for your vacation. You think of yourself boarding the plane, watching movies, sleeping for some time, and departing the plane ready to experience true relaxation, or, at least you think. Although plane crashes are not as common as car accidents, it can still occur. This is a truly tragic case that occurred in Japan and left an impact on the many passengers onboard. 

 On January 2nd, an Airbus A350 from Japanese Airlines departed from Shin Chitose Airport at 4:22 P.M. 379 passengers along with some crew members were aboard the flight. The plane was in the air for around an hour and a half until it finally came to the time when it started to land at Haneda Airport. In the middle of the runway, there was a coastal guard plane, the Bombardier Dash-8, with 6 crew members onboard and it was ready to take off to the port city of Niigata. Due to the lack of a modern ADS-B transponder, the plane was unaware of the Airbus’ position. Unfortunately, the airbus would crash into the coastal plane killing all 6 crew members in it except the pilot during the landing phase at 5:45. Flames erupted right at the collision, yet miraculously, all 379 passengers made it out alive along with all the crew members.

 Neha Johnny, a 9th grader from SHS says “The fact many passengers managed to make it out is amazing even through the horrifying and devastating scene in flames during the crash.” Many firefighters came to assist with the fire burning the plane and collapsing it. It took nearly 6 hours to extinguish the flames. Rameesha Ahmad, another 9th grader from SHS states “This incident is a pure example of how anything can go wrong in something as safe as it may seem.” This is an eye-opening experience for Japan to provide all airplanes with the same modern technology so this issue will never arise again.