Unfortunately, only two days into 2024, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 (JA13XJ) had a fiery collision with a Japan Coast Guard De Havilland Dash-8-300 (JA722A) at Haneda Airport in Japan. On the evening of January 2nd, the A350, which was inbound from Sapporo (JL516), crashed into the Dash 8 shortly after touching down on runway 34R. All 379 occupants onboard the A350 managed to evacuate the aircraft safely, however only 1 out of 6 occupants onboard the Dash 8–the captain–survived.

The Dash 8 was bound for other parts of Japan to help with earthquake relief efforts. From what we know so far, ATC asked the aircraft to “taxi to holding point C5”, an instruction the pilots acknowledged. Only an official report will tell if there were any gaps that may have led the propeller plane to enter the runway by accident. After sitting there for 40 seconds, the A350, which was cleared to land, collided with the Japan Coast Guard aircraft, causing the fiery explosion. After skidding down the runway for a kilometer, the A350 came to a rest. Soon after, the evacuation slides were deployed, and the evacuation commenced.

This incident is currently under investigation.