Tuesday, March 13, 2012

261 Killed, 10 Survive As Jet Crashes in Japan

NAGOYA, Japan A Taiwanese jet apparently trying to abort alanding crashed, exploded and burned beside an airport runway Tuesdaynight, killing 261 people. Ten people survived.

The crash of the China Airlines A300-600R Airbus was Japan'ssecond-worst aviation disaster.

Minutes before the crash, pilot Wang Lo-chi radioed that hewould abandon his landing attempt and try again, a Transport Ministryofficial said. The pilot gave no reason.

In his last tranmission, he said only: "Going around."

Survivor Sylvanie Betonio, a Philippine citizen, was quotedafter the crash by Fuji TV as saying passengers received no warningthat the plane was in trouble.

Flight 140 carried 256 passengers, including two infants - bothkilled - and 15 crew, bound from Taipei, Taiwan, to Nagoya. Mostwere from Japan or Taiwan.

The survivors, who included a 3-year-old boy, were criticallyinjured and were hospitalized. Officials said a Filipino, twoTaiwanese and seven Japanese survived. The boy's doctor, ToshioSugiyama, said the 3-year-old, Seiji Nakayama, was expected to live.

Witnesses told the Japan Broadcasting Corp. that the planeseemed be trying to climb out of an aborted landing when its rightwing hit the ground and the plane exploded.

Chang Tai-hsih, chief of the China Airlines branch in Japan, andothers discounted reports of engine trouble in Taipei before the1,180-mile flight to Nagoya.

About 3,000 police, firemen and troops lifted wreckage withcranes and searched by hand for bodies.

"When I got to the plane, it looked so bad that I thoughteveryone must have died. But then I heard a woman calling in painfor help and I called for a stretcher and we rescued her," saidTakahide Miyagi, an assistant fire chief.

The plane crashed several hundred yards to the right of therunway. Had it gone 200 yards more straight ahead, it would have hita housing area.

The jet ended up just short of hangars of an Air Self-DefenseForces base at the airport. The airmen's quick response was creditedwith saving lives.

Kenji Hayashi, airport manager for China Airlines, said thepassengers included 153 Japanese and 101 foreigners, many fromTaiwan. The two infants aboard were believed to be Japanese.

Fire official Yoshihito Horiba said many bodies were too badlymangled to identify even by age or gender. The bodies, wrapped inblankets, were placed in four large tents set up near the wreckage.

A spokesman for Airbus Industrie said the company plans to sendan investigative team to the site in Nagoya, 170 miles west of Tokyo.

The A300-600R, a twin-engine wide-body jet, has not beeninvolved in a crash before, but other A300 models have been involvedin six accidents.

Airport officials recovered a flight recorder Wednesday andbegan analyzing it for evidence.

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