When news broke of a Japan Airlines commercial flight bursting into flames as it skidded down the tarmac moments after a collision as it landed, many feared the very worst.
Five people were killed when a smaller government plane on the runway was hit by the Airbus A350, but all 379 people — including 12 Australians — on the flight arriving from the city of Sapporo made it out alive moments before flames took hold of the plane.
This is what we know about what led to the crash and how everyone on the commercial aircraft survived.
How did the crash happen?
A Japan Airlines plane crashed into a smaller aircraft.(AP: Kyodo News)
Dramatic footage captured the moment of disaster.
The Japan Airlines (JAL) plane can be seen on approach to land when, as it touched down, it collided with a smaller aircraft operated by the Coast Guard.
The smaller of the planes exploded, sending a fireball shooting into the night sky.
As the commercial liner continued down the runway, its left engine burst into flames sending sparks and flames trailing behind it.
The smaller plane, a Dash-8, had been preparing to deliver aid to earthquake-ravaged parts of the country's west coast.
Aerial map of plane collision.(ABC News)
Sadly, of the six people onboard, only the pilot survived.
Then came incredible news — all those onboard the JAL flight, an Airbus A350, had survived with all 379 people having managed to escape the burning wreckage just minutes before it was engulfed by flames.
At least 17 people on the passenger plane were injured, according to Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
The airline said the evacuation began almost immediately after the plane came to a standstill and that all passengers were taken to safety within less than 20 minutes.
Witnesses estimate the plane was engulfed by flames 10 minutes later.
What happened on the Japan Airlines plane after the crash?
In the hours that followed the crash, shaky footage emerged from inside the plane's cabin.
What strikes you is the sense of relative calm of those onboard.
As an orange glow of flames is visible through the windows, as an engine burns, a small number of people cry out and beg to be let off the plane, including a child who yells: "Let us get out quickly! Let us get out quickly!"
The Coast Guard plane was taxiing on the runway.(ABC News)
But most of those onboard sit and wait for further instructions from the cabin crew who ask passengers to remain calm.
The crew then quickly deploys the emergency inflatable slides, allowing those on board to slide down and run from the burning wreckage to safety.
Professor Ronald Bartsch, a former manager of air transport operations with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), said he was surprised by the lack of serious injury or death.
Though, he said, this was the sort of scene pilots, flight and ground crews trained for constantly.
"It's good that it worked," he said.
"There's a lot of things that can go wrong; they could have opened the wrong emergency exits and opened an exit where a fire was. That's happened before with tragic consequences in Manchester many years ago."
Professor Bartsch, a pilot and former head of safety for Qantas, said in this instance the crew opened three of the eight exits to allow passengers to escape.
Another complexity the cabin crew had to deal with was that the plane's public address system appeared to have been disabled during the incident, so they had to instead rely on the use of loudspeakers to communicate.
This aerial photo shows the wreckage of the Japanese Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda airport.(AP: Kyodo News)
Brett Molesworth is a professor of Human Factors and Aviation Safety at UNSW said, by law, all planes were designed to be evacuated within 90 seconds, with only 50 per cent of doors operational.
Training for that exact scenario has been pivotal here.
This incident happened without warning; meaning there would have been limited time for pilots to brief the crew on what was happening and to formulate a plan.
What role did Japan Airlines extensive flight safety messaging play?
Anyone who has flown Japan Airlines should have seen or heard the extensive passenger safety video played before take off.
While much of the video is typical of the safety demonstration you would see on almost any flight, the video then goes into vivid detail about how to evacuate the plane in an emergency and explains why certain rules are in place.
"In the unlikely event of impact, take a protective brace position," the video explains.
"Leave your baggage when you evacuate!"
The animated video then shows people jostling for position in the aisle as they're attempting to escape, only to be prevented from leaving by a man struggling to retrieve his bag from the overhead compartment.
It causes an unnecessary delay.
As the video continues, it shows the man then going down the emergency inflatable slide, damaging it as he drags his carry-on suitcase next to him.
Professor Bartsch believed a major factor in the good outcome was the compliance of those onboard.
"The passengers must have followed instructions to a T. From the video footage that I've viewed, it didn't appear that any of the passengers had carried their bags off the aircraft," he said.
Professor Molesworth agreed passenger compliance appeared to have been extraordinary — especially the footage that appears to show the majority, if not all, passengers leaving their belongings behind.
"That would be a first," he said.
"In the vast majority of cases, people will take their bags and you can understand for some why they do that, though it certainly slows them down and presents a problem operating an [emergency] slide with bags."
Professor Bartsch added that the incident should serve as a reminder to people to pay attention to pre-flight safety briefings.
What will investigations into the collision focus on?
Investigations are underway examining what caused the crash, which aviation and safety experts have described as "unusual".
Early indications suggest the captain of the JAL flight had been given the appropriate permissions to land.
The coast guard pilot maintains he was also given permission to take-off.
The coast guard said officials were verifying that claim.
Reuters said transcripts of traffic control instructions released by authorities appeared to show the JAL jet had been given permission to land while the Coast Guard aircraft had been told to taxi to a holding point near the runway.
An official from Japan's civil aviation bureau told reporters there was no indication in those transcripts the Coast Guard aircraft had been granted permission to take off.
Professor Bartsch said the cause of the crash would remain speculation for some time.
"The aircraft was coming into land and, statistically, that's the most hazardous phase of flights," he said.
"It would appear that the pilot of the coast guard plane entered the runway when it was not supposed to. Whether or not that was the result of the air traffic control giving that instruction or whether the pilot … was confused by the instruction is yet to be seen."
He also hypothesised that, even if the JAL pilot did see the Dash-8 in the moments before the crash, the weight and velocity of the aircraft would have made it impossible to have safely gone around the smaller plane to avoid the crash.
"It was committed to land; the sheer momentum … it's not such that you can avert the accident," Professor Bartsch said.
The fire is likely to be seen as a key test case for airplane fuselages made from carbon-composite fibers, such as the A350 and the Boeing 787, instead of conventional aluminium skins.
ABC/AP