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Asiana jet removed from runway at Hiroshima airport

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An Asiana Airways plane was removed from the runway at Hiroshima airport on Sunday, 12 days after it smashed into a communications antenna as it came in to land.

The number of landings and takeoffs had been limited because the Airbus A320 had remained untouched since the accident about 120 meters from the center of the runway, lowering the visibility of pilots.

On Saturday night, the plane was moved by platform trucks about 500 meters away where investigators will continue their inspection. The work was completed Sunday morning.

So far, investigation of aerial footage from the airport has shown that the localiser -- a large gate-like structure, six meters high that sits some distance from the start of the runway -- splintered, with debris spread towards the landing strip.

Sets of wheelmarks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while at least one large fragment of the localiser -- which aircraft use to find the landing strip -- was on the tarmac.

Several hundred meters away, skid marks showed the Airbus A320 had careered off the runway and rotated more than 90 degrees. What appeared to be a chunk of the localiser was seen dangling from one wing and emergency escape chutes were deployed.

All 73 passengers and eight crew members were evacuated, but 25 passengers and two crew members were injured, Japanese officials said.

© Japan Today/AFP

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Finally moved the plane. Glad to see they didn't rush to move things "in the interest of efficiency of airport operations". Gather all the data possible in-place, THEN move things out of the way.

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