Revealed: How Japan Airlines cabin crew pulled off ‘miraculous’ evacuation plan from Tokyo plane inferno

Children were heard screaming and pleading for their lives as bright flames licked the exterior of the Japan Airlines plane that collided with a coast guard jet on the Haneda Airport runway yesterday.

But the crew of JAL Flight 516, an Airbus A-350 carrying 367 passengers that turned into a fireball on impact, had to remain level-headed and composed to save as many lives as possible.

Their exemplary work in saving every person on board stunned the world, and experts have praised the crew for calmly using their rigorous training to save hundreds of lives.

But experts also praised the passengers for “behaving well” in the face of sheer terror.

“I don’t see a single passenger on the ground carrying their luggage in any of the videos I’ve seen,” said Professor Ed Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich. the BBC.

Children on board are heard screaming as flames engulf the plane’s exterior

Video footage of the crash shows passengers hurling themselves down the slide with little fuss, causing everyone to get off quickly

All 379 passengers miraculously escaped from the Japan Airlines plane after being safely evacuated

Tokyo Metropolitan Police investigators inspect the area around the Japanese Coast Guard plane that collided with a Japan Airlines passenger jet at Haneda Airport

“If people try to take their carry-on luggage with them, it’s really dangerous because it would delay the evacuation.”

The inferno quickly engulfed the aircraft, making evacuation extremely difficult.

Only three of the inflatable slides could be used, but even these could not be deployed properly as the aircraft’s nose collapsed.

But video footage of the crash shows passengers hurling themselves down the slide without much fuss, allowing everyone to get off quickly.

The crew were also forced to use a megaphone to give calm but clear instructions to terrified passengers after the on-board tannoy system broke down during the fire.

Video shows two crew members trying to get the tannoy system working again, as children whimper and beg for their lives.

Several current and former aviation industry experts told the BBC on Tuesday that Japan Airlines’ strict training measures have saved lives.

Terrifying footage from inside the plane shows passengers covering their faces and struggling to breathe as the cabin filled with smoke after the fire

This aerial view shows the burned-out Japan Airlines plane at Haneda Airport

New crew members would have to undergo evacuation and rescue training for up to three weeks before being allowed to operate commercial flights.

This training is repeated once a year to ensure that it remains fresh in the minds of the crew members.

‘We go through a written exam, case study discussions and practical training using different scenarios, such as when the aircraft has to make a water landing or if there is a fire on board. Maintenance staff are also involved in such training,” said a former flight attendant who left the company a decade ago, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Nowadays, for a passenger aircraft to be internationally certified, aircraft manufacturers must prove that it is possible for anyone to exit a plane within 90 seconds, sometimes requiring tests with real passengers.

Air accidents have often been one of the main drivers for innovations in safety technology and procedures.

A Japan Airlines plane is on fire after colliding with a Coast Guard plane on the ground at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport

The aircraft was consumed by fire shortly after the crash

Haneda Airport was closed almost immediately after the incident

A 1985 crash involving a Japan Airlines plane that killed 520 people. To date, it is the deadliest aircraft accident in history.

The crash shook up the Japanese aviation industry, and Japan Airlines in particular wanted to ensure that something like this would never happen again.

In 2005, the company realized that many joined the deadly crash without even being alive, so the following year it opened a museum near Haneda Airport displaying wreckage from the incident, with the aim of remembering employees to the fatal consequences of the crash. do a bad job.

‘Faced with the pain and grief of the relatives and the public distrust in the safety of airlines [after the 1985 crash]we promised that we would never allow such a tragic accident to happen again,” Japan Airlines wrote on the facility’s web page.

“Each staff is reminded that valuable lives and property are entrusted to us in our work.”