Taiwanese jet catches fire at Okinawa airport
Taiwanese jet catches fire at Okinawa airport
Monday, August 20, 2007 - TOKYO (AP)
A China Airlines jet caught fire on the tarmac at an airport in Okinawa after arriving on a flight from Taipei, on Monday, but there were no passengers injured, officials said.
All 155 passengers had disembarked from the Boeing 737 before the fire, Kyodo News reported. National broadcaster NHK said the pilot was also believed to have escaped the plane.
A transport ministry official could not confirm the number of passengers, but said all had left before the fire broke out. He said, however, that the safety of the crew was not immediately known.
NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from the plane as fire fighters doused the wrecked fuselage with extinguishers.
Flight CI120 left Taipei at 8:15 a.m. and had been scheduled to arrive at Naha, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, at 10:45 a.m., NHK reported.