From the moment of the collision, it took the crew 18 minutes to get everyone off the plane and safely accounted for.
Most of the passengers on the flight from Hokkaido were Japanese with at least 43 foreigners confirmed among them including Australians, Swedish, Hong Kong, Chinese and South Korean nationals, a JAL spokesperson said.
Wreckage from the planes remained scattered around the runway on Thursday as several officials, some wearing masks, gloves and hard hats, surveyed the debris, footage on public broadcaster NHK showed. A Coast Guard official on Wednesday said they had recovered a voice recorder from the Coast Guard plane.
Hundreds of flights in and out of Haneda have faced cancellation or delays since the crash on Tuesday, leaving many frustrated passengers at the airport.
Michio Kusunoki, a 67-year-old teacher, said he had faced two cancelled flights as he tried to return to his home of Fukouka in Japan’s south from Haneda.
“I was meant to get on a plane yesterday evening at 7.30pm … Then I changed to this morning at 8.30am and that flight was cancelled too,” he said.
“I couldn’t get anything after that till 4.30pm so I am going to roam around as I can’t get home.”
Nearly 200 passengers were also stranded overnight at New Chitose airport in Hokkaido where the flight originated from.
Source: CNA
