Amidst the advent of the new year in 2024, Japan faces a series of devastating tragedies. The latest incident involves a collision between a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane and a Coast Guard aircraft at the bustling Haneda airport. This collision occurred when the JAL airplane was landing at the airport, resulting in the tragic death of five crew members of the Coast Guard plane, with its Captain sustaining serious injuries. Fortunately, the approximately 400 passengers and crew on JAL’s Airbus A350 aircraft narrowly escaped as they were evacuated from the burning plane. However, several passengers are said to have sustained injuries after the collision with the Coast Guard plane and fire.

This accident, which took place on Tuesday, has left Japanese authorities in shock and has caused disruption to flight operations at Haneda airport. This incident closely follows a catastrophic 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan’s Noto Peninsula on January 1st. The earthquake has claimed over 40 lives thus far and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, adding to the series of unfortunate events befalling Japan at the start of this year.

Meanwhile, in a press statement issued today regarding the aircraft collision JAL said “We regret to inform you that on the evening of January 2nd, JL516 was involved in a collision with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft during its landing at Haneda Airport, resulting in a fire on the runway. Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased members of the Japan Coast Guard. We want to assure you that all passengers and crew on our flight were safely evacuated."

Japan jal coast guard inferno haneda airport