Plane explodes on runway

A CHINA Airlines jet exploded into flames at an airport in Japan after arriving from Taiwan yesterday, but all 165 people aboard escaped alive, officials said.

All 157 passengers — including two small children — fled the Boeing 737 on inflated emergency slides before the plane exploded, Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura said.

China Airlines spokesperson Sun Hung-Wen told reporters in Taipei that the aircraft skidded on the tarmac on its way from the runway to the gate after landing at the Okinawa airport, starting a fire that prompted the emergency exit.