Joji Waites, BALPA Head of Flight Safety said:

“Any loss like this is felt right across the global aviation family. Our deepest condolences go to all those affected. We must also pay tribute to the crew and passengers of the Japan Airlines flight who carried out the evacuation with professionalism in trying circumstances.

“Aviation has a great safety record partly because of the culture of learning from accidents and incidents without blame. It is vital that air accident investigators are now given the space to carry out an independent and thorough investigation without interference or unhelpful media speculation about the causes so that future tragedies can be avoided.”