165 safe after plane explodes in Japan by Delia Cruceru

A plane with 157 passengers from China Airlines exploded Monday on the airport of Naha, the capital of Okinawa, at 10:27 a.m. local time. The plane departed from Taipei and was heading to China. When the plane, a Boeing 737-800 jetline landed on Naha, passengers said that the left engine began smoking, followed by the right one. Japanese Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura declared: "Okinawa Airport traffic controllers had received no report from the pilot indicating anything was wrong as the plane came in to land and even as it stopped near the terminal to unload passengers." All the 157 passengers were evacuated through the emergency slides and none of them or the crew was injured. But two of the passengers a young girl of 7 and a 57 year old man were taken to a hospital after they said they felt unwell after being evacuated. The cause of fire is still unknown, but any terrorist attacks have been denied by the Japanese officials. A spokesman for China Airlines, Sun Hung-wen said: "the plane landed safely so we are still checking why there was a fire." A Boeing investigator is expected to arrive in Japan by Wednesday and according to spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will send two investigators to Japan.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070820/ap_on_re_as/japan_plane_fire;_ylt=Apig4qdi9Zl.P5APGM01Lc2s0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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