A Japan Airlines plane bursts into flames after colliding with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Jan. 2. (Tatsuya Shimada)

Photo/Illutration A passenger who narrowly escaped JAL Flight 516 captures the carnage on Jan. 2 at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. (Provided by a passenger)

Children cried, adults sensed looming death and flight attendants shouted orders as flames and panic engulfed JAL Flight 516.

But after the terrifying ordeal, all 379 passengers and crew members managed to escape the burning aircraft before it was too late.

Several of them explained what they had just experienced.

One passenger had filmed a video of a left side window tinted orange from flames after the Japan Airlines passenger jet hit a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on a runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Jan. 2.

The video captured people in the cabin screaming: “Get me out of here now. Please!”

Flight attendants were shouting back, “Please cooperate!”

The cabin announcement system did not work, and the flight crew had to yell out their instructions or use megaphones.

Several passengers, bracing for impact or an explosion, protected themselves by keeping their heads down.

One child cried out, “Why don’t you just open (the door)?”

When the front of the JAL plane made contact with the tarmac, sparks emerged from one of the engines.

The flight attendants determined that three emergency exits on the aircraft were safe, and after it halted, they guided the passengers to the front, according to the airline.

“Leave your luggage!” the crew shouted. “Stay low!”

The passengers scrambled toward a front door and used an escape slide to flee from the danger.

On the ground, some passengers helped others get up quickly. Many started running from the aircraft the moment they reached the bottom.

A 33-year-old man who lives in Saitama said the moment the plane landed, he heard a “bang” and smoke filled the cabin.

“This isn’t good,” he recalled thinking.

His 29-year-old wife said, “I was desperate and just wanted to at least save our 2-year-old daughter.”

He said, “I’m glad my family is all safe, but it was very scary.”

The family had been visiting her parents’ home in Hokkaido. The mother said she is worried that her daughter may be so traumatized from the accident that she will never want to fly again.

A 28-year-old company employee was on the plane, returning from a ski trip to Niseko, Hokkaido.

He said he saw the engine in flames.

“I thought if it exploded, it would be the end and I might die,” he said.

He also heard voices saying: “Enough with the suitcase! Hurry up!”

He rushed to the front door in a panic.

“The keys to my house were left in my luggage and were burned. I don’t know what to do after this,” he said.

According to JAL and the Tokyo Fire Department, Flight 516 was carrying 367 passengers, including eight infants, and 12 crew members.

Fourteen of them were injured with burns and bruises, but their lives were not in danger.

The smell of the burning aircraft lingered in the vicinity, and some of the passengers who took refuge in a terminal building shed tears.

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