‘It was a miracle’: How passengers escaped a JAL fireball in Tokyo

This photo provided by Jiji Press shows a Japan Airlines plane on fire on a runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on January 2, 2024. / AFP

The flight between the northern city of Sapporo and Tokyo’s Haneda airport is Japan’s busiest air route, and one of the most frequent services anywhere in the world. Japan Airlines (JAL) operates 16 round-trip flights a day.

But when JAL516 followed that route to Haneda on Tuesday, what unfolded was a runway collision that is baffling aviation experts and a smooth evacuation and rescue that some described as miraculous.

All 379 passengers and crew escaped the Airbus A350 aircraft which erupted into a fireball after colliding with a smaller Coast Guard plane shortly after landing. Five of the six Coast Guard plane crew were killed.

Satoshi Yamake, 59, was returning to the capital where he works in the telecoms sector after visiting…