Houston Community News >> China Airlines Catches Fire at Japan Airport

8/19/2007-- A passenger plane of China Airlines from Taiwan was severely destroyed in fire on Monday morning at Naha airport of Southern Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, according to Japanese media.

None of the some 155 passengers was injured in the accident since the fire broke out after all of them got off the plane, according to airport officials.

Kyodo News quoted China Airlines officials as saying that the fire broke out at around 10:30 a.m. from engine below one of the main wing of the Boeing 737 plane.

TV footage showed that strong fire and thick smoke rose from middle and end part of the plane before about ten fire department vehicles and about a hundred firefighters gathered around the plane to put off the fire.

The plane, the airlines' flight 120, was almost totally destroyed and broke down to the ground. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

The plane departed Taipei and landed at Naha, the capital of Okinawa, at 10:27 a.m. (0127 GMT). 

(Contributed by Xinghua)