Officials probe Japan plane blaze

The plane burst into flames as it sat on the airport tarmac

Aviation officials from the US and Taiwan have arrived on the Japanese island of Okinawa to investigate why a passenger plane burst into flames.

The plane, a Taiwanese China Airlines Boeing 737-800, exploded into a fireball shortly after landing at Naha airport on Monday.

All 165 people on board survived, some escaping with just seconds to spare.

The investigators are focusing on the possibility of a fuel leak from one of the engines, officials said.

"From the size and intensity of the fire, we may be looking at a very large fuel leak," said Hiromi Tsurumi, a spokesman for Japan's Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission.

The investigating team, which includes experts from manufacturer Boeing, planned to take apart a pylon supporting the right wing engine to see if a fuel pipe inside it could have ruptured, Kyodo news agency cited investigators as saying.

Smoke and fire

The plane had been on a routine flight from the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, to Okinawa, carrying 157 passengers and eight crew.

In pictures: plane on fire

Airport officials told Kyodo that black smoke and fire could be seen billowing from the plane just eight minutes after it had landed.

Passengers and crew escaped down emergency chutes. TV images showed the pilot jumping out of the cockpit window as the plane exploded.

Once the fire had been extinguished, an hour later, the plane was found to have broken into two.

On Tuesday, the chief executive of China Airlines, Chao Kuo-shuai, travelled to Japan to apologise to passengers.

The accident is a blow to the Taiwanese flag carrier, which has worked hard to improve its safety record.

The airline suffered several crashes during the 1990s, and in 2002 one of its fleet crashed into the sea near the island of Penghu with 225 passengers and crew on board.