A Chinese passenger jet burst into flames after making a routine landing in Japan today, destroying the jet on the runway just moments after all 165 people on board fled the aircraft.
All 157 passengers - including two small children- fled the Boeing 737-800 unhurt on inflated emergency slides just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball, Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura told reporters.
“The fire started when the left engine exploded a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot,” Tamura said, adding that airport traffic controllers had received no report from the pilot indicating anything was wrong.
Nobody was injured. Local fire official Hiroki Shimabukuro said two passengers - a 7-year-old girl and a man in his 50s - had been hospitalized because they felt unwell, but not because they were injured.
“The fire started when the left engine exploded a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot,” Mr Tamura told reporters, adding that the pilots did not make a distress call or give any sign they were expecting difficulties after landing.
Hideaki Oyadomari, an airport worker, said: “After the plane landed, there were flames, and I heard explosions a few times, then saw black smoke. We felt the hot air coming our way.”
Four officials from Japan’s Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission were at the airport to investigate the incident. In Taiwan, aviation officials ordered China Airlines and its subsidiary, Mandarin Airlines, to ground their 13 other Boeing 737-800s pending safety inspections.
“If there was a fire, it might have something to do with an oil leak,” said Chang Kuo-cheng, the head of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration.
China Airlines has suffered four deadly accidents in the past 13 years, including a crash in the Japanese city of Nagoya in 1994 in which 264 people were killed.
Okinawa is a popular spot for beach holidays, and the number of visitors to Japan from other parts of Asia has increased in recent years.