How airline passengers managed to survive fiery runway collision in Japan

Geoff Bennett:

A fiery runway collision at a Tokyo airport stunned the world today with dramatic imagery. What's more stunning, hundreds of passengers survived and managed to get off safely. But five crew members on a Coast Guard plane involved in the accident were killed.

Neil Connery of Independent Television News starts our coverage with this report.

Neil Connery:

Japan Airlines Flight 516 bursts into flames as it lands at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. It collides with a Japanese Coast Guard plane on touchdown.

Fire spreads along the Airbus A350 carrying 379 people, this the scene inside, panic as the flames get nearer. The pilot manages to keep control, bringing the aircraft to a gradual halt, as smoke begins to fill the cabin. As cabin crew respond, one child calls out: "Please get me out of here quickly."

As fire envelops the fuselage, the 367 passengers and 12 crew start fleeing the intense heat and smoke down emergency shoots, with just moments to spare.

It's a miraculous escape. With everyone now off, fire crews battle flames so fierce they burn through the plane's structure. Five people on board the Coast Guard aircraft, which collided with the Airbus, were killed. Its pilot survived, but suffered severe injuries. It was taking aid to victims of yesterday's powerful earthquake.

Japan's prime minister, Fumio Kishida, offered his condolences to the five people killed, who he said had lost their lives trying to help others. He also praised the Japan Airlines crew and passengers for their calmness. Investigations are now getting under way, as the remains of Japan Airlines Flight 516 lie smoldering.

The 379 people who were on board are overwhelmed with relief they survived and walked away from this.

Geoff Bennett:

Our own aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, joins us now.

Miles, thank you for being with us.

So we know that the crew members aboard that Japanese Coast Guard plane tragically died in this collision, but that the 379 passengers, including eight children and the crew on board the commercial plane, were successfully evacuated.

Tell us how they pulled that off without further tragedy.

Miles O’Brien:

Yes, Geoff, it is extraordinary.

And there's a lot of factors that come into play here. There's a certain amount that is a technological story. Some of it is crew training and execution. And, ultimately, it was the passengers themselves who took it upon themselves to act in a way that would save themselves.

Talking about the technology first, the aviation industry has spent decades trying to make airplane interiors less flammable, the upholstery and the inner walls, et cetera. That bought time.

The crew, the flight cabin crew in particular, obviously did their job well. They're not really there to serve us drinks and snacks. They're there to get us out in this instance of survivable crash. They did that. And ultimately, the passengers, they weren't pulling down their carry-on bags. They just did what they were told.

They turned around and they got out of that plane, and they did it in under 90 seconds. And it proved what a lot of us were not so sure might happen in the real world, that it can happen that a plane with upwards of 400 people on it in flames can yield an accident where no one gets hurt. It's extraordinary.

Geoff Bennett:

I want to ask you more about the technology.

Tell us more about the design and the manufacturing of this aircraft, the Airbus A350. How exactly did it buy them time? Because we saw how the cabin was engulfed in smoke, and then after the passengers made it off, that was when the plane was just enveloped by flames.

Miles O’Brien:

Yes, there were — years ago, there were a series of accidents, Geoff, that would have been otherwise survivable were it not for the fact that there was not much attention paid to the flammability of the interior.

The FAA and other entities spent a lot of time testing for alternatives. The airline industry responded, regulations changed, and that is a significant piece of this story. It really is a matter of just providing a little bit of time, and that's what — all they needed.

The fact that, in 90 seconds, upwards of 400 people could get out seems like it wouldn't work, but it did.

Geoff Bennett:

Japanese authorities say there's going to be a full investigation.

Based on what you know right now, what factors could have contributed to this collision?

Miles O’Brien:

Well, it's clear someone was in the wrong here, whether it was air traffic control, the crew of the A350 airliner, or the Japanese Coast Guard crew.

We don't know. But what is helpful in this case is there will be, of course, tape recordings of everybody and all the air traffic control communications and the onboard conversations, at least on the Airbus A350. And, of course, there are people who are alive to testify in all three locations. So we will figure out what happened.

I think some of the factors they will be looking at is this Coast Guard crew, for example. They were involved in trying to get relief supplies to the Niigata region, and subsequent to that earthquake and tsunami. How fatigued were they? Were they stressed? Had they done multiple missions that day? That's a factor they might want to look at.

When you look at the crew of the Airbus A350, was there confusion about the clearances that were given? You have one controller on the tower frequency talking to the landing aircraft, another controller on the ground frequency talking to the ground — the aircraft that is taxiing. So confusion can arise there.

So there's any number of ways that can — this can go awry. And — but I'm very certain they will figure this out.

Geoff Bennett:

And, lastly, Miles, are there any takeaways here for the U.S. aviation industry?

Miles O’Brien:

Well, officially, this is not a U.S. accident. These were — this was a French-made aircraft landing in Japan with British-made engines.

So it's not as if the U.S. or its companies will be a party to this investigation. But, as you and I have been talking about these past months, there have been several near-misses in the United States, for a lot of factors, including a lack of staffing among air traffic controllers.

And there are other factors as well. And whatever comes out of this, I guarantee you will be in the category of lessons learned for the entire aviation industry. When people say things happen miraculously in aviation, I don't believe that. It's hard work and, frankly, it's the hard lessons of incidents like this.

Geoff Bennett:

Miles O'Brien, thanks so much for joining us.

Miles O’Brien:

You're welcome, Geoff.