Japan's Haneda Airport begins clearing plane wreckage from runway

Crews at Tokyo's Haneda Airport started clearing the charred wreckage of a Japan Airlines plane from a runway on Friday, footage from Japanese broadcaster TBS showed, as investigators worked to determine what caused the deadly accident.

The Airbus collided with a Japanese Coast Guard turboprop on the runway while landing in Tokyo on Tuesday. All 379 people on the JAL aircraft escaped before it was engulfed in flames, while five of the six crew on the Coast Guard craft died.

Crews began removal of the Coast Guard plane on Thursday, TBS said.

JAL aims to complete the removal work, which includes dismantling the aircraft, by January 7 and it will be taken to its hangar, where the aircraft will be inspected by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the report said.

Transport authorities are probing the circumstances that led to the Coast Guard plane entering the runway where the passenger jet was landing.

The Coast Guard plane was making its third emergency trip to an earthquake zone within 24 hours when it collided with a passenger jet at a very busy airport, a Coast Guard official told Reuters.

Authorities have only just begun their investigations and aviation experts say it usually takes the failure of multiple safety guardrails for an airplane accident to happen.

US aviation safety officials will provide assistance to Japan in the reading of airplane recorders of the deadly collision.

The runway collision marked the first time a modern lightweight airliner has burnt down and is being seen as a test case for how well a new generation of carbon-composite airplanes copes with a catastrophic fire.