Japan

The passenger plane that collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday had received permission to land, Japan Airlines announced at a press conference on Tuesday evening, according to Reuters. The captain had reportedly been given permission by the control tower to land, but could not see the Coast Guard’s smaller aircraft on the ground below him. The cause of the accident remains unclear. According to Japan Airlines, the plane’s speaker system did not work during the evacuation.
     Hundreds of people were evacuated and escaped alive when the landing plane caught fire after colliding with a Coast Guard plane. But five out of six people from the Japanese Coast Guard’s aircraft are confirmed to have died after the collision. The captain survived but with serious injuries, the Japanese police told the Japanese public service media NHK. A total of 379 people – both crew and passengers – from the Japan Airlines plane were rapidly evacuated after the plane came to a stop and prior to the plane becoming engulfed in flames. /ritzau/