AN Asiana Airlines flight with 80 passengers aboard ran out of runway soon after landing at Hiroshima airport on Tuesday (April 14), according to Japanese media.
Japanese media quoted local fire department as saying 23 passengers sustained minor injuries, none seriously.
Media reports said government officials suspect the aircraft may have collided with a tower near the runway when it landed at night at the airport serving the city of Hiroshima and others nearby in western Japan.
The reports pointed to a broken communications tower, the aircraft’s damaged wing and smoke emerging from its engine as factors that suggest the government official theory could be correct.
Passengers described the situation in the aircraft as utter panic.
“There was no problem until we landed.. But then it was panic in the plane. There were few passengers but the oxygen mask came down, women were crying, and everyone was screaming. As far as I remember, there were two shocks to the plane,” one passenger told Japanese media as he left the airport by taxi.
“We heard someone say the plane has stopped. But it still felt as if we were flying so I was wondering why the engines had stopped mid-flight. However we were two rows from the back emergency exits but the cabin attendant was shouting that the doors wouldn’t open, so there was another panic then,” one unidentified woman told local broadcaster TBS.
“We could also hear people shout ‘hurry up before the plane explodes’. But the doors open and we swiftly got out and slid to the ground and felt a sense of relief. We thought it would explode so we were running away from the airplane,” she added.
Of the 74 passengers, 50 are believed to be South Koreans and 24 Japanese, according to the police quoted by Japanese media.
Reuters
