The FedEx Boeing MD-11 freighter that crashed on landing this morning at Tokyo's Narita Airport has been identified, as its charred wreckage is still blocking one of the airport's two runways.

A senior official at the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) in Tokyo says the FedEx MD-11F's registration number is N526FE. According to Flight's ACAS database FedEx owns this aircraft, which has a serial number of 48600, and it was built in 1994.

The official says the freighter's wreckage is still blocking Narita's runway 34L.

"I heard from the news reports that the pilot and the co-pilot are dead," he adds.

The MD-11F came in to land at Narita at around 07:00 today after completing a flight from Guangzhou in southern China.

Video footage shows that on landing the aircraft's left wing made contact with the runway and the MD-11 caught fire and crashed.

News footage shows airport fire crews have been able to extinguish the fire but the aircraft is a charred wreck.

The JCAB official says the bureau's flight standards department and Japan's Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (ARAIC) are now investigating.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news