Investigators scour jet wreckage after blast

Police and aviation experts began examining the charred shell of a China Airlines jet in southern Japan today, widening an investigation into why the plane exploded in flames just seconds after the 165 people aboard escaped.

No one was seriously injured in yesterday’s accident at an airport on the island of Okinawa, which began when an engine caught fire as the Boeing 737-800 pulled into a parking spot after arriving from Taiwan.

The probe has so far focused on reports from ground personnel that a fuel leak from the right engine could have led to the series of explosions. Boeing and the US government have dispatched experts to help with the investigation.

Japanese aviation authorities and local police began inspecting the wreckage today, said Hiromi Tsurumi, spokesman for Japan’s Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission.

“Authorities and police will jointly examine the plane’s body and wings,” Tsurumi said. “They will also pick up where they left off yesterday with interviewing the people involved.”

The plane’s 157 passengers and eight-member crew barely escaped with their lives.

The fire started in one of the engines just as the plane pulled into place at Okinawa’s Naha airport. With the plane’s wings and midsection ablaze, passengers escaped to the tarmac on inflated emergency chutes.

Once the aircraft was empty, and just as the pilot was climbing out of a cockpit window, the jet erupted in a fireball that sent flames and an enormous cloud of black smoke billowing into the sky.

No one was seriously injured. Two passengers were taken to hospital because they felt unwell. A ground engineer was knocked off his feet by the force of the blast, but was not hurt.

Airport traffic controllers had received no report from the pilot indicating anything was wrong as the aircraft came in to land, and even as it stopped near the terminal to let passengers disembark, Japanese Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura said.

Even after landing, passengers reported that nothing was amiss. But as the aircraft came to a halt near the terminal, passengers said they noticed smoke coming from one of the engines and pushed and ran for the exits.

The US Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are sending investigators to examine the scene. Boeing is also dispatching an investigator in response to a request from the local aviation authorities.

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration head Chang Kuo-cheng said authorities ordered China Airlines and its subsidiary Mandarin Airlines to ground their 13 other Boeing 737-800s pending a thorough inspection.

Japan’s Transport Ministry said no problems were found in an emergency inspection of all Boeing 737-800 planes owned by Japanese airlines, as well as some 737-700 models that carried a similar engine.

A China Airlines 747 crashed in 2002 as it flew from Taipei to Hong Kong, leading to 225 deaths, and some 450 people died in China Airlines accidents during the 1990s.