TOKYO: A FedEx cargo plane en route from China crashed in high winds and exploded in a ball of flames Monday at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing both pilots, according to Japanese hospital officials.
The pair, both US citizens, were reportedly the only two people aboard the American parcel delivery company's wide-body McDonnell Douglas MD-11, which was flying in from Guangzhou in southern China.
It was the first-ever fatal accident at Narita, Japan's biggest airport, the government said, and reportedly the country's first since 1996, when three people died in a Garuda Indonesia accident at Fukuoka Airport.
It was not immediately known what caused the crash, but the meteorological agency said strong gusts were blowing and that it had on Sunday night warned airlines of wind shear - a dangerous condition for planes coming in to land.
Television footage showed FedEx Flight 80 touching down about 6:50 am (2150 GMT Sunday). The rear wheels hit the tarmac before the aircraft's nose slammed into the runway and the plane sharply bounced onto its left wing.
The jet immediately exploded into a ball of flames and skidded at high speed while billowing a large plume of black smoke, before flipping onto its left side and coming to a halt off the side of the runway.
Fire engines and scores of firefighters in silver suits rushed to the gutted aircraft, which came to rest upside down, with orange flames still shooting out of its fuselage, to douse the fire with foam.
A male witness told TV Asahi that he saw that the aircraft "bounced twice and fell onto its left side. Immediately after that, a fire broke out."
Public broadcaster NHK said the pilot was 54 years old and the co-pilot was 49, and that both were US nationals.
"We confirm the deaths of the two pilots," Katsuji Komiyama, an official at Narita Red Cross hospital told AFP.
Winds as strong as 72 kilometres (45 miles) per hour were registered around the airport at the time of the crash, the meteorological agency said.
It said it had notified airlines late Sunday of the risk of wind shear, a condition when wind speed and direction suddenly change.
A male witness told TV Asahi that "the wind was quite strong, stronger than ordinary typhoons" at the time of the crash.
However, Masaaki Kai, head of general affairs at the Transport Ministry, said no wind shear warning was received early Monday and also cast doubt on the idea that strong cross winds may have caused the crash.
"We are currently investigating the direct cause of the accident, and we don't know whether it is related to turbulent winds," he said.
"Side winds are not believed to have posed a problem to the plane. Winds were blowing diagonally to the aircraft, but normally we do not think that a strong headwind immediately poses a threat to a plane."
FedEx spokeswoman Emiko Ogami told AFP: "The cause of the accident is still unknown. We are cooperating with Japanese aviation authorities to investigate the accident."
The crash closed down Runway A, the longer of Narita's two main runways.
Airport officials said the crash would cause flight cancellations and delays, and that scores of flights had been diverted elsewhere, including Haneda airport closer to Tokyo.
Japan Airlines said at least 27 of its flights had been cancelled and 6,690 passengers were affected by the crash.
All Nippon Airways said three flights had been cancelled with eight others scheduled later in the day also likely to be cut.
Late last month 47 passengers and crew were injured when a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 hit turbulence near Narita. Turbulence again injured two crew over Japan in early March aboard an Air France Boeing 777.
- AFP/yb
The pair, both US citizens, were reportedly the only two people aboard the American parcel delivery company's wide-body McDonnell Douglas MD-11, which was flying in from Guangzhou in southern China.
It was the first-ever fatal accident at Narita, Japan's biggest airport, the government said, and reportedly the country's first since 1996, when three people died in a Garuda Indonesia accident at Fukuoka Airport.
It was not immediately known what caused the crash, but the meteorological agency said strong gusts were blowing and that it had on Sunday night warned airlines of wind shear - a dangerous condition for planes coming in to land.
Television footage showed FedEx Flight 80 touching down about 6:50 am (2150 GMT Sunday). The rear wheels hit the tarmac before the aircraft's nose slammed into the runway and the plane sharply bounced onto its left wing.
The jet immediately exploded into a ball of flames and skidded at high speed while billowing a large plume of black smoke, before flipping onto its left side and coming to a halt off the side of the runway.
Fire engines and scores of firefighters in silver suits rushed to the gutted aircraft, which came to rest upside down, with orange flames still shooting out of its fuselage, to douse the fire with foam.
A male witness told TV Asahi that he saw that the aircraft "bounced twice and fell onto its left side. Immediately after that, a fire broke out."
Public broadcaster NHK said the pilot was 54 years old and the co-pilot was 49, and that both were US nationals.
"We confirm the deaths of the two pilots," Katsuji Komiyama, an official at Narita Red Cross hospital told AFP.
Winds as strong as 72 kilometres (45 miles) per hour were registered around the airport at the time of the crash, the meteorological agency said.
It said it had notified airlines late Sunday of the risk of wind shear, a condition when wind speed and direction suddenly change.
A male witness told TV Asahi that "the wind was quite strong, stronger than ordinary typhoons" at the time of the crash.
However, Masaaki Kai, head of general affairs at the Transport Ministry, said no wind shear warning was received early Monday and also cast doubt on the idea that strong cross winds may have caused the crash.
"We are currently investigating the direct cause of the accident, and we don't know whether it is related to turbulent winds," he said.
"Side winds are not believed to have posed a problem to the plane. Winds were blowing diagonally to the aircraft, but normally we do not think that a strong headwind immediately poses a threat to a plane."
FedEx spokeswoman Emiko Ogami told AFP: "The cause of the accident is still unknown. We are cooperating with Japanese aviation authorities to investigate the accident."
The crash closed down Runway A, the longer of Narita's two main runways.
Airport officials said the crash would cause flight cancellations and delays, and that scores of flights had been diverted elsewhere, including Haneda airport closer to Tokyo.
Japan Airlines said at least 27 of its flights had been cancelled and 6,690 passengers were affected by the crash.
All Nippon Airways said three flights had been cancelled with eight others scheduled later in the day also likely to be cut.
Late last month 47 passengers and crew were injured when a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 hit turbulence near Narita. Turbulence again injured two crew over Japan in early March aboard an Air France Boeing 777.
- AFP/yb
