Two planes collided on a runway in Japan for the second time this month.
A Korean Air flight crashed into a parked Cathay Pacific flight today at 5:30pm local time as it taxied down a New Chitose Airport runway in northern Hokkaido. This follows a Japan Airlines flight that burst into flames after colliding with an earthquake rescue plane two weeks ago, killing five at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.
Fortunately, this time neither plane burst into flames, and so far, none of the nearly 300 passengers on the Korean Air flight have reported injuries (there were no passengers or crew on the other plane). But both planes sustained damages (see video below, posted by Ifeng News.)
From The New York Times:
Footage on NHK of the airport — which had warned earlier in the day of delays and cancellations because of heavy snow — showed a thick coating on the ground.
The Korean Air plane was bound for Seoul, with 289 passengers and crew aboard, according to the news agency Kyodo. The agency reported that the A330, an Airbus, had sustained damage to the left wing, while Cathay's Boeing 777-300 was damaged near its right tail.
NHK reported that a vehicle towing the Korean Air plane had skidded on the snowy tarmac, causing the collision — the second impact between planes to take place at a Japanese airport this month. On Jan. 2, a Japan Airlines plane erupted in flames after colliding with a Coast Guard aircraft as it was landing in Tokyo. Five crew members on the Coast Guard jet were killed; all 367 passengers and 12 crew aboard the Japan Airlines plane safely evacuated.
