KUALA LUMPUR: Wisma Putra has confirmed that no Malaysians were involved in the Haneda Airport plane collision accident in Tokyo, Japan yesterday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin told the New Straits Times that Malaysians were not in the list of people affected by the incident.
When asked whether any Malaysians were involved in the collision between a Japan Airlines (JAL) Aircraft and Japan Coast Guard (JCG) aircraft on Tuesday, Mohamad said via text message: "Salam, non-Malaysian involved."
Five Japan Coast Guard crew members were killed following the collision, while the 379 passengers and crew in the JAL plane escaped to safety down emergency slides minutes before the plane they were on was engulfed in flames in the 6pm (Japan time) incident.
Japan's transportation authorities began investigating the cause of the accident today.
The country's transport ministry source told NHK that the air traffic controller cleared the Japan Airlines plane to land on runway C and instructed the Coast Guard aircraft to stay short of it.
However, a source from the Coast Guard said its pilot had received the green light to take off.
The inferno on the JAL aircraft was brought under control more than eight hours after the collision.
The Coast Guard said the involved aircraft was preparing to fly to Niigata airport, carrying aid for disaster-hit areas following Monday's (Jan 1) earthquake.
An investigator with the Japan Transport Safety Board had also told NHK that officials have recovered the black box of the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) aircraft that collided with the Japan Airlines Aircraft .