(CNN) — At least five people are reported to have been killed when a Japan Airlines plane carrying hundreds of passengers collided with an earthquake relief aircraft and burst into flames on landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday.
All 379 people on JAL flight 516, including eight children under the age of two, were safely evacuated from the passenger plane, according to the airline, but it is believed there were fatalities on the second aircraft, operated by the Japan Coast Guard..
The Airbus A350-900 aircraft ignited after flying into Haneda from the northern Japanese city of Sapporo at 5:47 p.m. local time (3:47 a.m. ET). Video showed a huge fireball erupt as the plane ignited, leaving a fiery trail down the runway.
Five crew members died on the second aircraft, thought to be a De Havilland Canada DHC-8, operated by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), according to Japan public broadcaster NHK. It said the plane’s captain was in a critical condition.
Japan Airlines has confirmed that 11 of the passengers on board JAL flight 516 were either transported to hospital or an airport clinic. There were no immediate details about the injuries.
The airline told CNN it is investigating the details and cause of fire.
After the blaze broke out, the plane was seen at a standstill with people using emergency slides to flee the inferno as firefighters tried to battle the growing flames. More than 100 fire trucks were dispatched in response to the accident, NHK reports
‘Big bang’
Guy Maestre, originally from France, was on board an adjacent plane at the time of the accident on Tuesday and describes hearing a “big bang.”
“I was hoping everyone was going to be safe,” Maestre, who had been visiting Japan from Philadelphia, told CNN, adding that it was “shocking to see.”
“I was in another plane in the window seat – we were getting ready to take off and we heard a big bang.
“We looked from our windows and saw a huge trail of flames running down the runway.
“Flames got higher and higher then we saw fire trucks go by the runway.”
A Japan Coast Guard spokesman told CNN that its aircraft had been headed from Haneda airport to an airbase in Niigata prefecture to help with relief efforts following a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Monday.
Flight 516 had been heading inbound to Haneda from Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido prefecture. The airline said it was carrying a total of 367 passengers, including eight infants, plus 12 crew members.
The majority of departures from Haneda Airport are now canceled and it’s unclear when flight services will resume, NHK reports.
CNN’s Emiko Jozuka, Eric Cheung and Mayumi Maruyama contributed to this article
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