A China Airlines plane became engulfed in flames Monday after one of its engine exploded upon landing on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, injuring two people, local media reported.
The left engine of Flight 120 belonging to the Taiwan airline caught fire around 10:30 am (0130 GMT) at Naha airport, but all its 157 passengers, including two infants, were able to evacuate the plane on emergency chutes. No passengers were injured.
One of the plane's eight crew members was hurt, however, as was a member of the ground crew.
One passenger was also taken to hospital after becoming ill following the evacuation from the Boeing 737-800, which left Taipei at 9:23 am.
The jet was taxiing on the tarmac when ground personnel alerted the pilot that the engine had caught fire, Taiwan authorities said. The plane's occupants were evacuated before the left engine exploded minutes after the plane was parked, a Japanese transport ministry official added.
Fire and black smoke engulfed the plane, which broke into three parts, before the blaze was extinguished an hour later.
Taiwan's ERA cable TV channel quoted some passengers as saying they heard an explosion in the engine before the fire.
The passengers were mostly Taiwan tourists but included 18 Japanese travellers. Two pilots and six flight attendants, one of whom is Japanese, was also on board.
According to a China Airlines spokesman, the flight operated normally from Taipei to Okinawa. Sun Hung-wen added at a news conference in Taipei that the airline plans to compensate the passengers for their lost baggage and cancelled trips.
Taiwan aviation authorities said they would dispatch a team of experts to Okinawa to investigate the fire.
'Experts from the Civil Aeronautics Administration [CAA], the Aviation Safety Council and China Airlines will fly to Okinawa this afternoon,' CAA Director General Chang Kuo-cheng said at a news conference.
Joining the investigators on their flight to Naha would also be Taiwan reporters and family members of Flight 120's passengers.
'As the accident occurred on Japanese soil, Japanese aeronautics authorities are in charge of the investigation, so we will assist them in the probe and will give them full cooperation,' Chang said.
Chang added that the Boeing 737-800 had undergone regular maintenance and showed no sign of malfunctioning from the time it left Taipei to its landing at Naha airport.
Chang said the Boeing 737-800 was delivered to China Airlines in July 2002 and had 13,666 flight hours on it. Its last safety check was on July 13, he said.
He said special checks that would include examination of the engines, fuel systems, wings, pumps and fuel ducts had been ordered on all of Taiwan's 15 737-800s, 12 of which belong to China Airlines.
Despite the fire, most of the Taiwan tourists on board planned to continue with their tour of Okinawa, even after their luggage and ID documents were burned, ERA TV reported.
China Airlines experienced a much worse accident on Japanese soil. In April 1994, one of its flights crashed in Nagoya, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
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