Taiwan plane catches fire at Japan airport

Tokyo, Aug 20: A plane belonging to Taiwan's China Airlines Ltd caught fire soon after landing on Japan's southern island of Okinawa today, but officials said all 165 people on board had escaped safely.

''All are safe. There is no one left in the plane now,'' a fire official said. National broadcaster NHK said all 157 passengers and eight crew were out of danger.

The charred remains of the plane lay broken on the tarmac after the flames were extinguished.

The Boeing 737-800 passenger plane had pulled up at the gate to disembark passengers in Naha, Okinawa's capital, after a flight from Taipei when the left engine exploded and caught fire, officials said.

TV pictures showed black smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane as airport fire crews smothered it in foam.

''Everything was working according to normal procedure. There was nothing wrong during the flight,'' China Airlines spokesman Johnson Sun told reporters, adding there was no evidence of an attack on the plane.

The airline said the plane had just undergone scheduled maintenance.

China Airlines has a troubled safety record with four deadly accidents in the past 13 years, including a crash in the Japanese city of Nagoya in 1994 in which 264 people were killed.

Okinawa is a popular spot for beach holidays and the number of visitors to Japan from other parts of Asia has increased in recent years, with the lifting of visa restrictions.

Reuters
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