Japan Airlines Says Jet Cleared To Land Before Collision

The burned-out wreckage of a Japan Airlines passenger plane sits on the tarmac at Tokyo International Airport (Credit: AFP)

Japanese investigators on Wednesday probed a near-catastrophic collision at Tokyo's Haneda Airport between a coast guard plane and a passenger jet that airline executives have said was given permission to land.

Five people on the coast guard aircraft died, but all 379 passengers and crew escaped to safety down emergency slides minutes before the Japan Airlines Airbus was engulfed in flames late Tuesday.