The safe evacuation of all 379 passengers from a burning JAL jet at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday is being called a "miracle" by some overseas media. NHK has covered the details of the tense 18 minutes of the escape.

The JAL aircraft collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane at around 5:47 p.m. The passenger jet skidded along the runway for about a kilometer. When it came to a halt, the pilots were initially unaware a fire had broken out.

But smoke then began to fill the cabin. A female passenger said, "More and more smoke was spreading from the front, I only thought about not inhaling any."

A male passenger recalled how the cabin attendants responded to the emergency. They instructed the passengers to stay calm and evacuate while leaving their belongings behind.

The chief cabin attendant reported the fire to the cockpit. The evacuation began through two exits at the front of the plane, close to the cockpit.

Five of the remaining six exits were blocked by fire, leaving only one emergency exit at the rear of the plane.

The cabin crew must get permission from the cockpit to open an emergency exit. But the intercom system at the rear of the plane was not working, making communication impossible. The crew opened the door on their own initiative.

Egami Izumi, a visiting professor of the University of Tsukuba and a former JAL flight attendant, told NHK that the process of making decisions to open the emergency exits was crucial. Egami said, "They will try to contact the captain. But if they don't get through, the only way left is to open the door and evacuate."

Egami also pointed out that the cooperation of the passengers led to a successful evacuation.

Another female passenger said everyone was calm and cooperating. She said, "It seemed we were going down the emergency chute slowly and getting stuck, but someone helped by pulling me. And I also pulled others. My luggage must have burned, though."

Egami said, "Almost nobody had any belongings with them while sliding down the chutes. It helped greatly that they followed instructions."

The captain was the last person to leave the plane at 6:05 p.m.,18 minutes after landing.

Egami believes the crew's readiness for any contingency resulted in the safe evacuation.

She said, "I think it must have been very difficult for the crew to evacuate everybody using only three exits. Crew members take part in annual emergency drills. They also think before every flight what they should carry with them and what roles they should play in different scenarios. That's what the crews always keep in mind and that played a big part in this escape."