JAL plane makes emergency landing at Haneda

September 5, 2017

TOKYO- A Japan Airlines plane bound for New York made an emergency landing at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda soon after the departure on Tuesday due to an engine fire that may have been caused by a bird strike.

Police were informed of the engine fire at around 11:05 a.m. (2:05 a.m. GMT) and the plane touched down shortly after noon.

There were no reports of injury to the 247 crew members and passengers aboard the plane, JAL Flight 6, according to the Metropolitan Police Department's Tokyo Airport Police Station.

The engine of the left wing of the Boeing 777 caught fire after it departed the airport in the capital's Ota Ward at around 10:40 a.m.

Some 55 square meters of lawn near the runway was burned, possibly due to the fire. The Tokyo Fire Department and others are looking into the cause of the blaze.

"When the plane left the ground, there was an unusual sound, and the plane caught fire," a witness who called the police said, according to the police. Jiji Press