KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian embassy in Tokyo is working with Japan Airlines (JAL) officials and local authorities to ascertain whether any Malaysians were aboard the plane which caught fire following a collision with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft yesterday.
In a statement issued just before midnight, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said the embassy will extend the necessary assistance to any Malaysians who were passengers on the ill-fated flight.
“Malaysia extends its deepest sympathies and condolences to the victims and families affected by the incident, as well as to the people and the Japanese government.”
As of press time, it was reported that five out of the six crew members of the coast guard plane died after the JAL airliner collided with it during the latter’s landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, one of the busiest transit hubs in the world.
The pilot of the coast guard aircraft, which was scheduled to fly to Niigata to participate in earthquake relief efforts, is severely injured, Japan public broadcaster NHK quoted the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department as saying.
All 379 passengers and crew of the JAL flight were safely evacuated.
The JAL plane was taxiing briskly along the runway before it collided with the coast guard aircraft and burst into flames.
BREAKING: Japan Airlines plane with 367 people on board collides with Coast Guard plane at Tokyo Airport pic.twitter.com/ANheXFC2Ny
— BNO News (@BNONews) January 2, 2024
JAL said Flight 516 was coming into Tokyo from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido.
On the other side of Honshu island, a 7.6-magnitude quake hit the Sea of Japan at about 4pm (3pm Malaysia time) yesterday, triggering tsunami waves of more than 1m high and killing at least 48 people in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Wisma Putra yesterday said that it had not received any reports of Malaysian casualties from the earthquake which shook parts of central and west Japan. – January 2, 2024