A Burning Jet, Three Exits: How 379 Flyers Were Saved in Tokyo

(Bloomberg) -- As Japan Airlines Flight JL516 skidded to a fiery halt after colliding with another plane on the runway at Tokyo Haneda airport on Jan. 2, cabin crew faced a daunting scenario.

The intercom system to communicate between flight deck and cabin had broken down, one of the giant engines was still spinning and couldn’t be shut off, and only three of the eight escape doors were available to evacuate the stricken aircraft as flames licked up the kerosene-covered fuselage.

In the end, all 367 passengers and 12 crew got off the Airbus A350 alive. Given the odds, their escape is even more remarkable, the result of modern aircraft design, skilled crew and — not least — passengers who preserved calm and stuck to the rules. 

Modern planes must be able to fully evacuate in as little as 90 seconds, using just half the number of their available exits. The Japan Airlines occupants managed with even fewer. One flight attendant quickly decided to open an emergency door toward the back of the jet to help more people escape via the emergency slides, government officials said at a press conference the day after the disaster. 

Aircraft manufacturers train rapid evacuations in order to gain certification, and the 90-second rule has existed for decades after regulators determined modern aircraft can structurally withstand a blast for at least that long. Even the giant Airbus A380, with the additional complication of two full-length flight decks, has managed to empty out with a few seconds to spare. 

Footage from inside the Japan Airlines plane showed the smoke had entered the cabin, and that some passengers were clutching for face masks to facilitate breathing. Still, the mood was calm as people made their way through the dimly lit cabin to the available exits. The aircraft was operating at almost full capacity — the particular Japan Airlines Airbus is configured to hold 369 passengers, and the domestic flight from northern Japan was crammed to just two seats below that limit.

While the investigation will seek to determine why not all doors were used to evacuate, some exits may have been damaged by the collision with the other aircraft, or flight attendants and crew decided the burning engines would place passengers in danger. Standard operating procedure in the event of an emergency evacuation calls for cabin crew to check for any external hazard or fire near each door. 

Crucially, passengers left their hand luggage behind on the plane. While that’s an often-repeated safety requirement in case of evacuation, past disasters have shown that some fleeing people tend to lunge for their personal belongings. That, in turn creates dangerous bottlenecks while flight attendants manage flow control, including helping passengers jump into the emergency slides correctly — ideally without a large handbag or laptop case strapped around their neck.

Once outside, people weren’t entirely clear of the danger zone. The giant Rolls-Royce engine on the right wing was still spinning, and the aircraft was doused in kerosene after it had smashed through the fueled-up De Havilland Canada Dash 8 operated by the Japanese Coast guard. Five of the six people aboard the smaller plane were killed in the impact, while the captain survived.

Read More: Japan Crash Probe Points to Taxiing Plane Out of Position 

Within minutes, the first firetrucks had arrived and began spraying foam. Yet the chaos of rapidly approaching rescue crews and fleeing passengers can also pose a safety hazard. In 2013, one young passenger who was ejected from the crashed Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco was run over by at least one firetruck dispatched to rescue survivors.

A spokesperson for Airbus said that all of the manufacturer’s jets have a certain level of fire resistance and structural integrity in the event of an external fire. The Airbus A350 is made in large parts from carbon composite materials, which the manufacturer says have a similar level of fire resistance to traditionally-used aluminum. 

Fire services eventually left the aircraft to burn out given there was no longer life risk, a procedure called “defensive mode” to maintain the safety of the firefighters. By Wednesday morning, all that remained of the Airbus A350 was a charred carcass, with both wings still largely intact. A few hundred feet down the runway, the other plane lay destroyed beyond recognition. 

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