NHK has learned that an air traffic controller at Tokyo's Haneda Airport had given permission for a Japan Airlines passenger jet to enter a runway before it collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane on Tuesday evening.

The air controller had also ordered the coast guard aircraft to hold short of the runway. The plane belongs to the Haneda Airport base.

A source from Japan's transport ministry revealed this information to NHK.

JAL Flight 516 was landing on Haneda's C-runway from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido when the collision occurred at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

The collision caused both aircraft to catch fire, killing five coast guard members, while all 379 on board the commercial flight escaped from three emergency exits.

Fourteen of the passengers who suffered bruises or felt in poor condition were treated at hospitals.

Of the six people on board the coast guard aircraft, only the captain survived. He was evacuated with serious injuries.

Japan Airlines has announced that its crew members said they confirmed the landing permission from the controller and repeated the order before carrying out landing operations.

The Japan Transport Safety Board is dispatching six investigators to begin a full-scale probe into the collision.