January 2, 2024
"The entire cabin was filled with smoke within a few minutes.... We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them."
Said Anton Deibe, 17, a passenger, quoted in "Plane Explodes in Flames While Landing at Airport in Tokyo/Japan Airlines said all 367 passengers and 12 crew members had evacuated the jet. Five crew members on a Coast Guard plane that collided with it were killed" (NYT).
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22 comments:
Many deaths in otherwise survivable air crashes are caused when passengers freeze. Immediately exit the plane.
It probably helps to sit in an exit row, too.
As far as I can tell at this early point, the coast-guard jet had entered the runway before it should have, causing it to be in the path of the Japan Airlines Flight 516 Airbus A350 as it landed.
I am amazed that an evacuation of so many people went so well.
what were the pilots' pronouns? inquiring minds.. WANT to know!!
>“We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them.”<
I have a strict routine when I get in my seat on an airliner:
1) Count the number of armrests between me and the emergency exit row, so that I can get to it by feel if needs be.
2) Take note of which side of seats between me and the exit contain the largest people, so I can head for the other side in an emergency evacuation scrum.
Of course in the final analysis very few such measures will generally help -- but tell that to the people on Flight 516 at Haneda this morning...
Terrifying. I'm amazed that the death toll was not greater on the Airbus. Kudos to the Flight Attendants for overseeing a successful evacuation.
What Ice Nine said. In addition, I look to the back and count them as well. Remember, a split fuselage might be the best route out, and try to gauge where the fire or leaked fuel is outside of the aircraft. It would suck to get out and land in a pool of fuel that is going to burn any second. I try to wear only cotton or wool clothing, good shoes, and I pay attention to the safety brief, even though I have heard it countless times.
It's sad that five Coast Guard members were killed, but it's amazing that the death toll wasn't higher.
It will be interesting to see what the cause of this accident was.
Following yesterday's earthquake this incident again demonstrates the enormously high level of civilized behavior and discipline in Japan. Evacuating almost 400 passengers and crew within less than 2 minutes is no easy feat, although aircraft are designed in a way to allow for an escape within 90 seconds. There have been similar situations in other countries where passengers insisted on grabbing their luggage and taking selfies.
This incident demonstrates the incredible work by the JAL crew to get everyone off the larger aircraft in one piece, especially with what appears to be collapsed nose gear and only the front doors available. Can we all please take this as a reminder that cabin crew’s primary raison d'être is safety, and that when they say to follow instructions and take nothing with you in the event of an evacuation, that applies to everyone.
Many years ago when it was still a real magazine, The Atlantic ran a haunting story, I think by real magazine writer William Langewiesche, about the disaster of the Estonia, where hundreds lost their lives. I think he wrote a couple of disaster stories, or he and a few others did on the same topic. The grim statistical conclusion was that those who survived didn't help anyone else, were alone, not held back by others they needed to save, and often pushed others out of the way to survive, albeit with a sense of guilt. It wasn't uplifting, but there you have it.
Many media accounts of this tragedy fail to specify that the Coast Guard aircraft belonged to the Japanese Coast Guard, not the United States Coast Guard.
That was an excellent job by the JAL cabin crew getting all of their passengers safely off the aircraft in the emergency. When I'm flying I always remind myself that the primary duty of the flight attendants is passenger safety, not getting me drinks.
It is silly and paranoid to spend any time planning or preparing for this sort of event. It is vanishingly rare, and even if it were to happen to you, all you could really do is move quickly and calmly as needs dictated. Thank god these were Japanese passengers. An airplane full of Americans would have been recording selfies, struggling to retrieve carry-on luggage, or unable to fit between the seats. If I had to be in a crash like this, I'd be very happy to be surrounded by thin and polite Japanese people. No one was even screaming in the on board video I saw.
How did two aircraft come to occupy the same runway at the same time? It was one thing for an accident like this to happen in 1991 in LAX. Our technology is supposed to be way better than that a full 33 years later.
Fortunately the plane was full of Japanese travelers, and when the cabin crew told them not to stop to fetch their belongings from the overhead bins the passengers obeyed and headed straight for the emergency exits. Can you picture a bunch of American Karens obeying the flight attendants in a similar situation?
First I heard of this incident and have seen nothing else. However, if Douglas is right, then unfortunately this is another runway incursion which seemed to occurring more often, but this time it became a fatality. Interesting though this happened in Tokyo, as it is the US which seems to be getting worse in managing aircraft on the ground. Is the flight controller situation getting worse everywhere?
The JAL plane was landing. Unlikely ATC did not know that. The Coast Guard plane was getting ready to depart. I appears that the CG plane rolled past the Hold Short line and was struck by the wing of the plane. This was not a taxi accident. Lucky it wasn't further out in the runway or it would have been very bad. The CG pilots or the ground controller messed up.
Disturbing to me is the starboard (right) engine was still running while the passengers were evacuating. The plane burned from inside out. The fuselage must have been ruptured in the crash and fuel got into the baggage compartment.
I just saw a video (Rex's Hangar) on the Douglas Aircraft Company. The crash that killed Knute Rockne led to an overhaul of passenger aviation in the US and indirectly to the DC-2 and DC-3, aircraft that made travel fast, comfortable, and safe.
Weird it came up then.
The funny thing is, when you look at the numbers, the survivability of an air disaster is remarkably high, statistically. All incidents considered, the fatality rate is around 10% or less, if I remember correctly. You'd immediately assume that it was much higher, but nearly all accidents occur on landing or takeoff, and many of the ones that occur midair - like that Hawaiian disaster, where the top of the plane peeled off, mid-flight - can resolve with most passengers safely walking away.
Amazing that they all survived that. The cabin crew earned their pay today.
I'll second the question about runway incursions. in Japan?! Seems out of sorts.
Much dishonor. My Mom would not approve.
Big Mike said...
How did two aircraft come to occupy the same runway at the same time? It was one thing for an accident like this to happen in 1991 in LAX. Our technology is supposed to be way better than that a full 33 years later.
Fortunately the plane was full of Japanese travelers, and when the cabin crew told them not to stop to fetch their belongings from the overhead bins the passengers obeyed and headed straight for the emergency exits. Can you picture a bunch of American Karens obeying the flight attendants in a similar situation?
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In my experience, Chinese are much, much worse. I've seen them out of their seats and opening the overhead bins the instant they feel the landing gear touch the ground.
“Blogger AndrewV said...
That was an excellent job by the JAL cabin crew getting all of their passengers safely off the aircraft in the emergency. When I'm flying I always remind myself that the primary duty of the flight attendants is passenger safety, not getting me drinks.”
You’re right. A well trained cabin crew can perform an evacuation very quickly. While several commenters have given credit to the Japanese passengers, a similar evacuation was performed on an Air France A340 (Flight 358) ran off the end of a runway on landing n Toronto back in 2005. Over 300 passengers and crew were evacuated within 90 seconds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_358
Blancolirio is the go-to source for aviation crash analysis. In this case I would say unintelligible taxi directions issued to the smaller plane, and no reading-back to confirm.
“Takeoff and landing are the most critical phases of flight because so much is happening for pilots,” says Bubb about the disconcerting figures. “This includes monitoring aircraft systems, scanning the airport environment for other aircraft and impediments while listening to air traffic control instructions, and being prepared in case we have to abort the takeoff or reject the landing.”
Additionally, he says, these two flight phases are when the aircraft is in “dirty configuration,” which is industry-speak for when wing flaps and landing gear are down. The airplane is also flying at a lower speed at these times. “If the pilots are not paying attention, and the aircraft flies too slowly, it will lose lift and do what we call a stall.” And stalls have resulted in deadly crashes.
(For what it’s worth, fatal incidents are incredibly rare in air travel: According to the International Air Transport Association, the fatality risk is so low, a person would need to take a flight every day for 25,214 years to experience a 100% fatal accident.)
Readers Digest via Instapundit
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