Eight high school students from Vancouver Island remain stranded in Japan after a cargo flight crashed at Narita Airport, forcing the closure of a runway.

A group of 23 high school students from Wellington and Woodlands secondary schools in Nanaimo were on their way home from a spring break trip when a FedEx plane crashed Monday, disrupting the busy schedule of flights out of the main airport servicing Tokyo.

On short notice, 15 students and three chaperons managed to get a flight home on Tuesday morning.

But the remaining eight students were preparing to spend a second unscheduled night in a Tokyo hotel, under the supervision of one chaperon.

Chaperon Ryoko McCall told CBC News by phone from Tokyo that she had been talking with Air Canada, but it was not clear when all the students would be able to fly home.

"They are indicating that their flights are also sold out for tomorrow, and we'll just have to go on a standby basis. They will not have any indication until the last moment," said McCall.

Francine Frisson, of the Nanaimo School District, said some of the students were as young as 14, making it a difficult choice to determine which students should return home first.

"For some of the students this is a new experience, being away from home, so far away. The good news is that we have two experienced teachers, a chaperon that has conducted trips such as this one many times, and two other chaperons."

Air Canada is paying for the students to stay in a hotel for a second night, but McCall said the airline would not say how long it will continue to pay for rooms if the students remain stranded.

Investigators believe wind shear, or a sudden gust of wind, may have been a factor in Monday's plane crash. The FedEx cargo plane smashed into a runway and burst into a ball of fire while attempting to land, killing the American pilot and co-pilot.

The plane was an MD-11, a wide-body airliner built by McDonnell Douglas and based on the DC-10.