July 30, 2010  Print Email | Cargo plane crashes on landing in Tokyo
Two dead. Airlines divert flights as main runway is closed.
Posted by Agencies at 05:39 AM GMT on Mar 23, 2009 | TOKYO (REUTERS): A FedEx Corp cargo aircraft crashed at Japan's Narita airport today, killing two crew. The plan, which got caught in a gust of wind, burst into flames as it landed, closing the main runway at the busy Tokyo airport.
Airlines cancelled more than 30 flights and diverted some to other airports as the longest of two runways was closed.
"We have information that strong winds caused the plane to divert from the runway," a Narita Airport spokeswoman said.
 The FedEx plane landed hard, tipped onto its left wing and burst into flames, video of the crash on public broadcaster NHK showed.
A bright orange fireball and black billowing smoke engulfed the plane as it flipped and skidded off the runway. Firefighters sprayed foam onto the broken remains of the plane with its wheels in the air.
The MD-11 plane had been on a cargo flight from Guangzhou, China, FedEx said in a statement.
The plane's two American crew had died, a transport ministry official told reporters, in what was the first fatal crash at Narita airport since it opened in 1978.
It was unclear how long the main runway would be closed at Narita, the main international airport for the Japanese capital.
Japan Airlines Corp, Japan's main international airline, said 27 flights had been cancelled, affecting nearly 6,700 people, and some arriving flights had been diverted to Tokyo's Haneda airport and Sapporo airport in northern Japan.
All Nippon Airways said in a statement that the airline had cancelled 9 flights so far, including international flights to New York, Washington and London.
Japan's meteorological agency had issued an advisory of gales for the area around the airport and a local observatory said it had notified airlines of possible wind shear, a condition in which wind speed and direction suddenly change.
The MD-11 was a freighter made by McDonnell Douglas, part of Boeing Co.
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