Pilots: Passenger jet uncontrollable after collision with coast guard plane

NHK has learned that the pilots of the passenger plane that collided with a coast guard aircraft at Haneda Airport on January 2 said the plane was uncontrollable after the crash. The Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with the coast guard De Havilland Canada Dash 8 on a runway immediately after touching down at the airport in Tokyo and burst into flames. All the 379 passengers and crew members aboard the JAL plane had evacuated within 18 minutes. Five of the six crew on the coast guard plane died. JAL interviewed the pilots of the jet on what happened before and after the crash. According to the airline's report, the pilots said they saw "something" momentarily immediately after the plane landed normally and felt a strong impact. They said they then felt the aircraft was skidding. The report says the captain tried to operate the brakes, tail rudder and the steering mechanism, among other actions, but they did not function. Asked about the situation after the aircraft came to a stop on the grass apron by the runway, the pilots said the cockpit was pitch black and that they immediately realized an emergency evacuation would be necessary. But they said the light to indicate the spraying of fire extinguishing agents on the engines has been completed was not on. They added that the system for instructing flight attendants to carry out an emergency evacuation was not working either. The government's Transport Safety Board is also investigating events from the collision until the evacuation.<br/>