Newsday

No Injuries in Japan Airliner Fire

TOKYO (AP) -- A Japan Airlines Boeing 747 carrying 312 people caught fire after landing in northwestern Japan, but there were no reports of any injuries, officials said Thursday.

The jet was taxiing after landing at an airport on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, when the crew aboard noticed that one of the aircraft's four engines had caught fire, said Norimitsu Goto, a local Transport Ministry official.

The fire occurred at around 7:50 p.m. Wednesday at the New Chitose airport, located 500 miles northwest of Tokyo.

The pilot of the flight extinguished the flames with onboard fire-fighting equipment and continued to the gage under its own power.

AP-NY-12-20-00 2120EST< 

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 20, 2000