A FedEx cargo plane crashed early Monday morning amid heavy winds at Tokyo's international airport and burst into flames. The pilot and copilot were taken to a hospital, and a local TV station reported they were both confirmed dead.
The MD-11 aircraft, Flight 80, from Guangzhou China crashed onto a runway at Narita Airport and was immediately swarmed by firefighters and rescuers. The pilot and copilot-the only people onboard the flight-were extracted from the cockpit and brought to a local hospital, according to airport spokeswoman Misuho Fukuda.
Video footage aired by NHK showed the plane touching down on its rear wheels and its nose hitting as if slammed onto the runway.
The plane bounced and its left wing hit the ground, bursting into flames. The plane then flopped over and veered off the runway with flames exploding from the center of the fuselage.
The two crew members were rescued from the plane at around 8 a.m. and taken to the Japanese Red Cross hospital, according to the police. Both were U.S. citizens, one in his 50s and the other in his 40s, local fire department officials said.
Firefighters said they extinguished the fire shortly after 9 a.m.
A local observatory said winds of up to about 72 kilometers per hour were blowing near the airport at the time of the accident.
The observatory said it had notified airline companies and related entities of the possibility of the occurrence of wind shear—a condition in which wind speed and direction suddenly change—after the weather became rough on Sunday evening.
The cargo plane touched down on Runway A, the longer of the airport’s two runways. The airport’s main runway is currently closed, according to the airport office.
Strong winds and turbulence have caused other recent incidents at the airport. Last month a flight from the Philippines was jolted by severe turbulence as it circled prior to landing, injuring 50 passengers and crew members.
Narita Airport is a major international hub located about 35 miles (60 kilometers) east of central Tokyo. It is Japan's second-busiest airport, after Haneda Airport, which is also in Tokyo.
Video from the landing showed the plane bouncing at least twice on the runway before bursting into flames. The fire destroyed the aircraft.
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