Investigators are trying to find a voice recorder within the severely burned fuselage of a Japan Airlines (JAL) aircraft after a timeline was launched revealing it took simply 18 minutes to evacuate all 379 passengers from the stricken flight.
Transport security officers are wanting into what triggered the collision between the passenger jet and a small coastguard aircraft on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday.
On Saturday they used heavy equipment for a second day to take away particles of the burned Airbus A350 right into a hangar to permit the runway to reopen. The wreckage from the coastguard aircraft has already been cleared.
All 379 occupants of JAL Flight 516 had been safely evacuated inside 18 minutes of touchdown because the plane was engulfed in flames, one thing specialists and the media have described as “a miracle”.
The pilot of the coastguard aircraft survived however his 5 different crewmembers died.
The coastguard plane was on a mission to ship aid items to survivors of highly effective earthquakes in central Japan which killed at the very least 100 individuals.
There has been hypothesis controllers might not have paid consideration to the coastguard aircraft’s presence on the runway after they gave the JAL aircraft permission to land.
Local broadcaster NHK reported that footage from its monitoring digicam on the airport confirmed the coastguard aircraft moved to the runway and stopped for about 40 seconds earlier than the collision.
In the footage the coastguard plane enters the runway from the C5 taxiway, then shortly afterwards the passenger aircraft touches down proper behind and rams into it, creating an orange fireball.
The JAL airliner, coated with flames and spewing gray smoke, continues down the runway earlier than coming to a cease round 1km (0.62 miles) away.
A ‘miracle’ evacuation
The JAL flight crew started its emergency response however the standard cabin announcement system had malfunctioned, in keeping with the airline, and the crew shouted right into a megaphone to verify all passengers heard their directions.
Flight attendants urged passengers to remain calm and depart their belongings behind whereas making their approach in direction of the closest of the one three usable exits – two ahead ones and the third on the rear – as 5 others had been deemed unsafe.
A survivor’s video exhibits smoke filling the cabin as individuals develop determined, with some shouting “please let us out!” as kids start to cry.
Many others remained calm and adopted directions to go away the burning aircraft on emergency chutes.
The captain ensured no person was left behind within the cabin and was the final to go away the plane 18 minutes after landing.
Read extra:
Japan aircraft fireplace: What occurred
Small coastguard jet ‘wasn’t cleared for take-off’
Experts investigating minutes earlier than collision
Experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board have secured the flight and voice information recorders from the coastguard’s Bombardier Dash-8 aircraft and a flight information recorder from the JAL jet to seek out out what occurred in the previous couple of minutes earlier than the deadly collision.
A transcript of recorded communication at site visitors management launched by the transport ministry on Wednesday confirmed the controller advised the coastguard aircraft to taxi to a holding place simply earlier than the runway, saying it had the primary departure precedence.
The coastguard pilot repeats the instruction after which thanks them for the highest slot. There was no additional instruction from management permitting the coastguard to enter the runway.
The pilot advised police investigators his plane was struck simply as he powered up the engines after acquiring clearance to take off.
The small lights on the coastguard plane and its 40-second cease might have made it much less seen to the JAL pilots and air site visitors management.
NHK additionally mentioned management officers might have missed an alert system for unauthorised runway entry whereas participating in different operations.
Source: information.sky.com”