Japan airliner inferno: Flames engulf plane carrying more than 300 passengers at Tokyo international airport

A large airliner carrying more than 300 passengers caught fire today at an airport near Tokyo, just a day after a brutal 7.6 magnitude earthquake devastated huge swathes of Japan’s west coast.

Shocking footage showed the Japan Airlines jet engulfed in a raging inferno as it sat on the runway at Haneda Airport, in Ota City, Tokyo, with gouts of flame seen pouring out of the passenger windows. 

The airliner collided with a coastguard plane as it travelled down the runway, Japanese TV reported, with the collision causing the plane to erupt into flames.

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One eyewitness wrote on X: ‘A plane exploded in front of me…’ and shared a clip of the passenger jet on fire.

Shocking footage showed the Japan Airlines jet engulfed in a raging inferno as it sat on the runway at Haneda Airport

A huge inferno is seen engulfing the plane in this footage

Travellers look on in shock and despair as the plane burns on the runway