A China Airlines passenger plane departing from Taiwan was
almost completely destroyed by fire on Monday morning after
arriving at the Naha airport in Southern Japan's Okinawa
Prefecture, according to Japanese media.
None of the 157 passengers and eight crew members were injured
in the accident. The fire broke out after everyone had left the
vehicle after noticing the start of a fire, airport and Japan's
National Police Agency (NPA) officials said.
"All 157 passengers evacuated through the emergency slides,"
Akihiko Tamura, a transport ministry official, told a press
conference in Tokyo.
He also said the eight crew members were confirmed alive. He
added, "There is information that one of them is injured and we are
still looking into how serious his injury is."
The airline earlier put the passenger count at 155 but
previously did not register two infants without tickets.
Kyodo News quoted China Airlines officials as saying that the
fire broke out at around 10:30 AM. The fire started in an engine
located below one of the main wings of the Boeing 737 plane shortly
after it had landed.
While the cause of the fire is still unknown, the NPA denied any
terrorist attack behind the accident.
TV footage showed that strong fire and thick smoke rose from the
middle and end parts of the plane before about ten fire department
vehicles and about a hundred firefighters gathered around the
plane. They extinguished the fire in about 40 minutes.
The plane, numbered flight 120, tilted and broke down to the
ground, with its left body almost burnt out, latest NKH footage
showed.
The plane departed from Taipei, Taiwan and landed at Naha, the
capital of Okinawa, Japan, at 10:27?AM local time (0127
GMT).
(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2007)
