90 seconds at Haneda Airport

379 passengers and crew evacuated from a burning aircraft

On 2 January 2024, a Japan Airlines Airbus 350–900 aircraft (flight JAL 516) collided with a Coast Guard Bombardier‑8 plane on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and burst into flames. Miraculously, all 379 people on board
(367 passengers + 12 crew) were safely evacuated in what EHS professionals call a ‘textbook evacuation’. Despite the intercom system to communicate between flight deck and cabin breaking down, one of the giant engines continuing to spin and could not be shut off, and only three of the eight escape doors were available to evacuate the stricken aircraft as flames licked up the kerosene-covered fuselage.

This is certainly an unparalleled EHS triumph attributed to a combination of the rigorous safety culture of Japan Airlines and modern safety standards. At the end of the day, the crew and passengers stuck to the basics, and everyone survived!

So what went right?

It is a triumph of Japanese discipline, who followed the crew’s instructions to the ‘T’ (being a domestic flight, the passengers were largely Japanese).
Japan Airlines have a very strong EHS culture that is drilled into all their employees – having conducted thousands of mock drills, the crew did not panic, remained calm, and knew exactly what to do in such a situation, having been trained for just such eventualities!
All the passengers acted very responsibly. Not one of them wasted time to pick up belongings when ordered to evacuate. (Some even waited inside the aircraft to help others!)
The entire evacuation was quick & orderly – all 379 passengers evacuated in 90 seconds flat! – out of only 3 serviceable exits.
Once they landed on the ground through the emergency chute, they ran away from the burning aircraft as fast as they could.
The aircraft, being a relatively new one (just 2 years old), was made largely of superior fireresistant carbon composite fibres instead of conventional aluminium skins with highquality insulation that caused less smoke inside the cabin, thereby creating less panic; it did not also break apart.
Aircraft manufacturers train rapid evacuations to gain certification, and the 90-second rule has existed for decades after regulators determined that modern aircrafts can structurally withstand a blast for at least that long. Even the giant Airbus A380, with the additional complication of two full-length flight decks, has managed to empty out with a few seconds to spare.