It only took 18 minutes to evacuate the 379 passengers of Japan Airlines Flight 516 after their plane burst into flames just after touchdown at Tokyo’s
The Associated Press collected accounts from officials and transcripts of traffic control communication. Here is a look at key moments leading to the collision.
TRAFFIC CONTROLS
Transcripts of the recorded communication, released by the transport ministry Wednesday, at
Just 10 seconds later, the outgoing coast guard plane identifies itself, telling traffic control it’s on a taxiway to the runway. The traffic controller instructs it to “taxi to holding point C5” before the runway and says it gets No. 1 departure priority. The
The traffic controls make no further communication with either the JAL flight or the coast guard aircraft over the next two minutes until the crash, while communicating with two other flights.
LANDING AND COLLISION
At
Emergency procedures in cabin are already in motion.
EVACUATION
The JAL flight crew starts emergency response. The usual cabin announcement system malfunctions, according to JAL, and the crew is shouting into a megaphone to make sure all passengers hear their instructions.
Flight attendants repeatedly urge passengers to stay calm and to leave their belongings behind while making their way toward the closest of the only three usable emergency exits — two frontward ones and the third on the back — as the five others were deemed unsafe.
A survivor's video shows smoke filling the cabin as people grow desperate. Some shout, “please let us out!” as children start crying. But many others remain calm and follow instructions to leave the burning plane on emergency chutes.
The captain ensures nobody is left behind in the cabin. He is the last one to leave the aircraft at
Experts and media describe the 18-minute evacuation as “a miracle," praising the JAL crew for their response.
AFTERMATH
At around
Aviation safety officials say they will inspect the A350 as part of their investigation to find out the cause of the collision, increasingly seen as human error with transcripts showing no clear takeoff approval was given to the coast guard plane.
By Friday, a team of six investigators from the
JAL starts removing A350 debris from the runway to its hanger.
Transport Minister
On Saturday, the JTSB experts recover voice data from the A350, crucial to the probe, and begin interviewing traffic controllers who were on call during the collision.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
, source