TOKYO // An Asiana Airlines plane smashed into a communications antenna as it made a crash landing at a Japanese airport injuring 27 people, footage showed on Wednesday.
The accident on Tuesday echoed the Korean airline’s fatal 2013 crash in San Francisco.
Aerial footage from Hiroshima airport in western Japan showed the localiser — a large gate-like structure, six metres high that sits around 300m from the start of the runway — splintered, with debris spread towards the landing strip.
Wheel marks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while large fragments of the localiser were on the tarmac.
Several hundred metres 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 localiser was seen dangling from one wing and emergency escape chutes were deployed.
Those on board Flight OZ162 from Incheon 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 late Tuesday, adding 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.
Hiroshima police have started an on-site investigation on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in injuries, Jiji Press said.
The airport is equipped with a sophisticated landing system, which can provide full assistance on direction and altitude when planes approach from the west, it said.
But the Asiana plane was approaching from the east because of wind direction, preventing the pilot — reportedly a veteran from South Korea — from being able to make full use of the system, media said.
The South Korean carrier said 18 passengers — 14 Japanese, two Koreans and two Chinese — had been hurt. Only one of them had to stay overnight in hospital.
There was no explanation for the discrepancy between Asiana and Japanese authorities.
“Asiana Airlines apologises for causing concern to the passengers and the people over the accident,” the company said.
“Asiana Airlines has immediately set up a response team to cope with the aftermath.
“As to the determination of the cause of the accident, we will cooperate as closely as possible with the relevant authorities.”
An Asiana spokeswoman in Seoul said the firm was checking Japanese news reports that the flight was approaching the runway at a lower altitude than normal before it grazed the nearby communications tower.
In July 2013, an Asiana flight crashed in San Francisco killing three people and leaving 182 injured.
US investigators concluded in that incident that a mismanaged landing approach in a highly automated cockpit was the probable cause of the accident, in which a Boeing 777 clipped a sea wall with its landing gear and then crashed and burst into flames.
* Agence France-Presse
