The cabin is full of smoke, the screams of adults and children, flames visible from the windows of the plane.
Based on the videos taken from inside the Japanese airline Airbus A350, it seems almost a miracle that all the nearly four hundred people on board survived when the passenger plane collided with another plane on the runway.
The collision happened yesterday, Tuesday evening local time, at the Haneda field in Tokyo. Both planes caught fire.
A lot of things had to go wrong for such a big accident to happen. However, one thing worked perfectly: the evacuation. This is how you rate Timo Lempiäinen. He is the chairman of the safety committee of the Finnish Airline Pilots Association (SLL), and comments on the accident on a general level.
– Here, everything worked as it should.
According to Lempiäinen’s assessment, the quick evacuation was above all thanks to the competent cabin crew.
The accident plane has eight emergency exits, but two of them in the front and one in the back were used.
– I think that the staff there have looked at doors that are certainly safe to go out of, says Lempiäinen.
It is clear that a major catastrophe was near.
The plane’s audio system did not work after the collision, and the person had to resort to shouting and megaphones, reports The New York Times. When the smoke in the cabin thickened, the staff showed light with flashlights and encouraged people through the smoke towards the exits, the magazine describes.
According to Japanese authorities, the plane was empty at 18:05 local time. This means that it took at most a few minutes to get all 379 passengers and crew members off the plane.
It will probably take a long time to find out the final cause of the accident.
However, according to the Reuters news agency, the coast guard propeller plane that collided with the passenger plane had not been given permission to take off.
Instead, the passenger plane had been granted a landing permit. This practically means that the Coast Guard plane was in the wrong place at the time of the accident. Five people on board the Coast Guard plane were killed. The pilot was injured.
In this video you can see how the accident happened.
Passengers must wait for an evacuation order
According to Lempiäinen, the evacuation will be successful if the passengers follow the instructions exactly.
The evacuation is initiated by the purser or one of the cabin crew.
– It is important that no one sets off before the crew gives permission. Not even if there is smoke in the cabin, Lempiäinen insists.
For example, de-icing fluid entering the pipeline can cause smoke without being an emergency.
The flight crew constantly trains for possible crisis situations. We have our own action plans for people with reduced mobility and physical disabilities.
Passengers are taught about possible evacuation every time before boarding. Even if you don’t always actively follow the instructions, the instructions inevitably leave a memory mark, Lempiäinen believes.
The purpose of repetition is also to prevent some passengers from becoming paralyzed in the event of an accident and unable to function.
– The most important thing is that you don’t end up digging any rubbish there. If even one is left digging for the bag, it may be that the last ones won’t make it out, says Lempiäinen.
He gives a few more reminders to everyone: Especially those sitting in the exit row should double-check the instructions in the seat pocket. It is good to keep your shoes on during take-off and landing, also because there are no loose items around.
– I personally also count how many rows of seats there are from my seat to the nearest exit door. If smoke enters the plane, it can be difficult to see it at that point, he says.
The accident also served as a “safety test” for the Airbus A350
The Japanese crash was the first major accident involving an Airbus A350
According to flight safety expert Timo Lempiäinen, the accident showed that the plane’s structures and fire protection are sufficiently durable.
This gives the crew precious seconds to evacuate.
According to the manufacturing regulations for passenger planes, the plane must withstand, for example, fire for 90 seconds. Evacuation should take place within this time.
The Airbus A350 is a so-called composite aircraft. The composite lightens the structures and is cheaper than the pure metal from which the wings of the machines were built in the past.
– In the past, there has only been laboratory data on the fire behavior of composites, says Lempiäinen.
Finnair also has Airbus A350 aircraft.