According to news reports, a Japan Airlines aircraft seemed to have collided with a coast guard aircraft and caught fire on the runway of Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Tuesday.
The plane was seen traveling down the runway in the photos posted by broadcaster NHK when an explosion of orange flames appeared behind and beneath it.
According to broadcaster NHK, every one of the 367 occupants on board the Airbus aircraft was evacuated.
Television sources claimed that the Airbus and a Coast Guard aircraft had collided, though the exact cause of the event was not immediately apparent.
According to reports, the aircraft had just landed at Sapporo airport, located on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan.
A Coast Guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said they were “checking details”.
“It’s not clear if there was a collision. But it is certain that our plane is involved,” he told AFP.
The television footage showed flames coming out of windows and the plane’s nose on the ground as rescue workers sprayed it.
There was also burning debris on the runway.
More than 70 fire engines were being deployed, NHK reported.
Japan has not suffered a serious commercial aviation accident in decades.
Its worst ever was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in the central Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew.
That disaster was one of the world’s deadliest plane crashes involving a single flight.