SINGAPORE — Japan Airlines (JAL) said that it will accept booking changes or offer ticket refunds without any fees for some customers, after a runway collision on Tuesday (Jan 2) involving one of its planes and a smaller aircraft.

This is for those with bookings until March 31 this year, JAL said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. 

The near-catastrophic collision occurred at Tokyo's Haneda Airport between a coast guard plane and a JAL passenger jet. 

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

The captain of the coast guard plane — which had been preparing to take aid to the New Year's Day earthquake zone — was its lone survivor but suffered serious injuries.

The burnt-out husk of the airliner remained on the airport tarmac on Wednesday. 

"We offer our deepest condolences to the families of the Japan Coast Guard personnel who lost their lives as a result and apologise for the distress and inconvenience caused to our passengers, their families, and those affected," JAL said in its Facebook post. 

"The safety of our customers and employees is our number one priority, and we are cooperating fully with the investigation." 

Customers seeking a booking change or refund for their JAL Group flights, which include code-share flights, must request the change before Jan 31, JAL said on its website. 

Japanese government officials pledged to investigate how the incident happened in a country that had not seen a serious commercial aviation accident for decades.

Asked by reporters at a briefing late Tuesday night whether the JAL flight had secured landing permission from air traffic control, officials at the major carrier said: "Our understanding is that it was given."

All 379 passengers and crew escaped the Airbus A350 aircraft, which erupted into a fireball, with one passenger dubbing it a "miracle" that no one on the larger plane had died.