An Asiana Airlines plane smashed into a communications antenna as it came in to land at Hiroshima Airport in Japan, footage showed yesterday, injuring 27 people in an accident with echoes of a South Korean airline’s fatal 2013 crash at San Francisco International Airport.
Aerial footage from Hiroshima Airport in western Japan showed the localizer — a large gate-like structure 6m high that sits about 300m from the start of the runway — splintered, with debris spread toward the landing strip.
Sets of wheel marks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while large fragments of the localizer — part of the instrument landing system — were on the tarmac.
Photo: AFP
Several hundred meters away, skid marks showed the Airbus A320 had careered off the runway and rotated more than 90 degrees. What appeared to be a chunk of the localizer was seen dangling from one wing and emergency escape chutes were deployed.
Those on board Asiana Airlines Flight OZ162, flying from Seoul Incheon Airport to Hiroshima, spoke of terror and confusion.
“There was smoke coming out and some of the oxygen masks fell down. Cabin attendants were in such a panic and I thought: ‘We are going to die,’” a woman told Japanese networks, adding that some people were bleeding.
A man wearing a neck brace said he “saw flames, and smoke filled the plane.”
All 73 passengers and eight crew evacuated safely, but 27 people were injured, Japanese officials said.
The accident had echoes of an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed in San Francisco in July, 2013, killing three people and leaving 182 injured.
US investigators concluded that a mismanaged landing approach in a highly automated cockpit was the probable cause of the accident.
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