Japan Airlines Flight 123

JA8119, missing the vertical stabilizer Image File history File links Amateur photograph taken from the ground during JA8119s final flight - note the missing parts (circled). ... The vertical stabilizer or fin of an aircraft is found on its tail, generally pointing straight upward. ...
Summary
Date	August 12, 1985
Cause	Structural failure, loss of hydraulic controls
Site	Mount Osutaka-no-one, Gunma, Japan
Origin	Tokyo International Airport (Haneda)
Destination	Osaka International Airport (Itami)
Fatalities	520
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-SR46
Operator	Japan Airlines
Tail number	JA8119
Passengers	509
Crew	15
Survivors	4

Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport to Osaka International Airport. The Boeing 747-SR46 that made this route, registered JA8119, crashed into the ridge of Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, 100 km from Tokyo, on Monday August 12, 1985. The crash site was on Osutaka-no-O'ne (Osutaka Ridge), near Mount Osutaka. is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ... Tokyo International Airport ) (IATA: HND, ICAO: RJTT), located in Ota, Tokyo, Japan, is one of the two primary airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area. ... Osaka International Airport ) (IATA: ITM, ICAO: RJOO) is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. ... The Boeing 747, commonly called a Jumbo Jet, is one of the most recognizable of all jet airliners and is the largest airliner currently in service. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Tokyo International Airport ) (IATA: HND, ICAO: RJTT), located in Ota, Tokyo, Japan, is one of the two primary airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area. ... Osaka International Airport ) (IATA: ITM, ICAO: RJOO) is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. ... The Boeing 747, commonly nicknamed the Jumbo Jet, is a long-haul, widebody commercial airliner manufactured by Boeing. ... Gunma redirects here. ...   , literally Eastern capital) is a unique subnational administrative region of Japan with characteristics of both a prefecture and a city. ... is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ...

All 15 crew members and 505 out of 509 passengers died: a total of 520 deaths. It remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in history, and the second-worst aviation accident of all time, after the Tenerife disaster (not counting ground victims). The four female survivors were seated towards the rear of the plane: Yumi Ochiai, an off-duty JAL flight attendant, age 25, who was jammed between a number of seats; Hiroko Yoshizaki, a 34-year-old woman and her 8-year-old daughter Mikiko Yoshizaki, who were trapped in an intact section of the fuselage; and a 12-year-old girl, Keiko Kawakami, who was found wedged between branches in a tree.^[1] Among the dead was the famous singer Kyu Sakamoto. The Tenerife collision took place on March 27, 1977, at 17:06:56 local time (also GMT), when two Boeing 747 airliners collided at Los Rodeos (TCI) on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, killing 583 people. ... The fuselage can be short, and seemingly unaerodynamic, as in this Christen Eagle 2 The fuselage (from the French fuselé spindle-shaped) is an aircrafts main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. ... Kyu Sakamoto (坂本九 Sakamoto Kyū), born Hisashi Oshima (大島ひさし, Ōshima Hisashi, December 10, 1941 - August 12, 1985) was a popular Japanese singer and actor. ...

Sequence of events

The flight took off at 6:12 p.m. About 12 minutes after takeoff, as the aircraft reached cruising altitude over Sagami Bay, the rear pressure bulkhead failed, causing an explosive decompression at the rear of the fuselage which tore the vertical stabilizer from the aircraft and severed the lines of all four of the aircraft's hydraulic systems. A photograph (shown) taken from the ground sometime later showed that the vertical stabilizer was missing. The pilots set their transponder to broadcast a distress signal to air traffic control in Tokyo, who directed the aircraft to descend and gave it heading vectors for an emergency landing. Continued control problems required them to first request vectors back to Haneda, then to Yokota (a U.S. military air base), then back to Haneda again as the aircraft wandered uncontrollably. Sagami Bay (相模湾, Sagami-wan), also known as the Sagami Gulf or Sagami Sea, lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in HonshÅ«, central Japan, with the Miura Peninsula to its east and the Izu Peninsula to its west. ... The Rear pressure bulkhead is a component of all large commercial aircraft. ... The vertical stabilizer or fin of an aircraft is found on its tail, generally pointing straight upward. ... Many hydraulic machines lined up Excavator. ... An Ontario Highway 407 toll transponder In telecommunication, the term transponder (short-for Transmitter-responder and sometimes abbreviated to XPDR, XPNDR or TPDR) has the following meanings: An automatic device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits a signal on a different frequency (see also broadcast translator). ... A distress signal is an internationally recognized means of obtaining help by using a radio, displaying a visual object or making noise from a distance. ... Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. ... An emergency landing is a non-planned landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis. ... Yokota Air Base ), a base of the United States Air Force, is located in the city of Fussa and nearby communities in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...

With the loss of all control surfaces, the aircraft began to oscillate up and down in what is known as a phugoid cycle, a flight mode typical of accidents that disable an aircraft's controls. After descending to 13,500 feet (4100 m), the pilots reported that the aircraft was uncontrollable. It flew over the Izu Peninsula, headed for the Pacific Ocean, then turned back toward the shore and descended to below 7,000 feet (2100 m) before the pilots managed to return to a climb. The aircraft reached an altitude of 13,000 feet (4000 m) before entering a wild descent into the mountains and disappearing from radar at 6:56 p.m. and 6,800 feet (2100 m). During the oscillations that preceded the crash, the pilots managed a small measure of control by using engine thrust. The final moments of the plane occurred when it hit a mountain as a result of this loss of control, flipped, and landed on its back. A phugoid is an aircraft motion where the vehicle pitches up and climbs, and then pitches down and descends, accompanied by speeding up and slowing down as it goes uphill and downhill. ... Location. ... Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newtons Second and Third Laws. ...

Thirty-two minutes elapsed from the time of the accident to the time of the crash, long enough for some passengers to write farewells to their families. Some passengers, not having access to writing instruments, cut themselves and used their own blood to write farewell messages.^[2]

Rescue operations

Because of mountainous terrain and darkness, rescue crews did not reach the crash site until the following morning, more than twelve hours after the crash. Most of the passengers' remains were identified, and were enshrined at the nearby village of Ueno. Ueno (上野村; -mura) is a village located in Tano District, Gunma, Japan. ...

There was some confusion about who would handle the rescue in the immediate aftermath of the crash. A U.S. Air Force helicopter was the first to the crash site, some 20 minutes after impact. The crew radioed Yokota Air Base to assemble rescue teams and offered to help guide Japanese forces to the site immediately. Japanese government representatives ordered the U.S. crew to return to Yokota Air Base because the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) were going to handle the rescue. The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... Yokota Air Base ), a base of the United States Air Force, is located in the city of Fussa and nearby communities in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. ... The Japan Self-Defense Forces ), or JSDF, are the military forces in Japan that were established after the end of World War II. The force has not been engaged in real combat but has been engaged in some international peacekeeping operations. ...

Although a JSDF helicopter spotted the wreck during the night, poor visibility and difficult terrain prevented it from landing at the site. The helicopter pilot reported no signs of survivors. As a result, JSDF forces did not get to the site as quickly as they might have, spending the night in a village 63 kilometers from the wreck, and not arriving until the following morning. Medical staff found a number of bodies whose injuries indicated that they had survived the crash but died from shock or exposure while awaiting rescue.^[1]

The off-duty flight attendant who survived the crash recounted from her hospital bed that she recalled bright lights and the sound of helicopter rotors shortly after she awoke amid the wreckage, and while she could hear screaming and moaning from other survivors, this gradually died down during the night.^[1]

Cause

The official cause of the crash according to the report published by the Japanese Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission, is as follows: Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (航空・鉄道事故調査委員会, Koku-tetsudojiko chosa iinkai, ARAIC) is the commission belonging to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Japan), founded in 1974 as Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission . ...

1. The aircraft was involved in a tailstrike incident at Itami Airport on June 2, 1978, which damaged the aircraft's rear pressure bulkhead.
2. The subsequent repair performed by Boeing was flawed. Boeing's procedures called for a doubler plate with two rows of rivets to cover up the damaged bulkhead, but the engineers fixing the aircraft used two doubler plates with only one row of rivets. This reduced the part's resistance to metal fatigue by 70%. According to the FAA, the one "doubler plate" which was specified for the job, (the FAA calls it a "splice plate" - essentially a patch), was surprisingly cut into two pieces parallel to the stress crack it was intended to reinforce, "to make it fit".^[3] This negated the effectiveness of one of the two rows of rivets. During the investigation Boeing calculated that this incorrect installation would fail after approximately 10,000 pressurizations; the aircraft accomplished 12,319 take-offs between the installation of the new plate and the final accident.
3. When the bulkhead gave way, it ruptured the lines of all four hydraulic systems. With the aircraft's control surfaces disabled, the aircraft was uncontrollable.

Tailstrike is a term used in aviation. ... Osaka International Airport (大阪国際空港) (IATA airport code: ITM, ICAO airport code: RJOO) is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. ... is the 153rd day of the year (154th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... The Rear pressure bulkhead is a component of all large commercial aircraft. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Boeing. ... A rivetted buffer beam on a steam locomotive A rivet is a mechanical fastener consisting of a smooth cylindrical shaft with heads on either end, the second one formed in position. ... A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship. ... This article is about a computer game. ... FAA may refer to: Federal Aviation Administration in the United States Fleet Air Arm in the UK Royal Navy Fuerza Aérea Argentina in Argentina This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Hydraulics is a branch of science and engineering concerned with the use of liquids to perform mechanical tasks. ... Aircraft flight controls allow a pilot to adjust and control the aircrafts flight attitude. ...

Aftermath

The Japanese public's confidence in JAL took a dramatic downturn in the wake of the disaster, passenger numbers on domestic routes dropping by one-third. Rumours persisted that Boeing had admitted fault to cover up shortcomings in the airline's inspection procedures and thus protect the reputation of a major customer.^[1] Without admitting liability, JAL paid 780 million yen to the victims' relatives in the form of "condolence money". Its president, Yasumoto Takagi, resigned, while a maintenance manager working for the company at Haneda committed suicide to "apologize" for the accident.^[1] This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Boeing. ... ISO 4217 Code JPY User(s) Japan Inflation -0. ... Tokyo International Airport ) (IATA: HND, ICAO: RJTT), located in Ota, Tokyo, Japan, is one of the two primary airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area. ... Rather than surrender to US soldiers, the Mayor (Bürgermeister) of Leipzig, Germany, committed suicide along with his wife and daughter on April 20, 1945. ...

The crash also led to the 2006 opening of the Safety Promotion Center near Haneda Airport, directed by Yutaka Kanasaki.^[4][5] This center was created for training purposes to alert employees of the importance of airline safety and their personal responsibility to ensure safety. The center, which has displays regarding air safety, the history of the crash, and selected pieces of the aircraft and passenger effects (including handwritten farewell notes), is also open to the public by appointment made one day prior to the visit. All visitors must be accompanied for a tour, which can be given in English. Photographs are not permitted, although there are copyrighted photographs in a brochure available to the public. Kanasaki requested that photographs not be published on the Internet or for public viewing.

See also

• List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
• China Airlines Flight 611 was a China Airlines Boeing 747 aircraft that crashed in Taiwan Strait in 2002 on a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong also because of faulty maintenance done on a tailstrike accident long before the crash date, causing the aircraft's structure to fail and disintegrate in flight finally.
• United Airlines Flight 232 was another case where all control surfaces failed. Dennis E. Fitch, a deadheading DC-10 instructor who had studied the case of JAL Flight 123, used a steer-by-throttle technique to guide the plane to an emergency landing, though a wing struck the ground and the plane caught fire as it touched down. 185 out of 296 survived.
• The DHL shootdown incident in Baghdad was the first jet airliner to land safely without any hydraulics.
• Flying an airplane without control surfaces
• Japan Airlines Flight 123 is featured in the National Geographic Channel Air Crash Investigation episode "Out of Control".
• The last 38 seconds of the cockpit voice data recorder can be heard on certain pressings of the "Reise, Reise" album by Rammstein.

Citing the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, an aviation accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person... China Airlines Flight 611 (CAL611, CI611) flew from Chiang Kai Shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan to Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, China. ... Not to be confused with Air China. ... The Boeing 747, commonly nicknamed the Jumbo Jet, is a long-haul, widebody commercial airliner manufactured by Boeing. ... Taiwan Strait Area The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180km-wide Strait between mainland China and the island of Taiwan. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... For other uses, see Taipei (disambiguation). ... United Airlines Flight 232 was a scheduled flight operated by United Airlines between Denver and Philadelphia via Chicago. ... Dennis E. Fitch (Denny Fitch) (born 1943) was the off-duty DC-10 training captain who helped captain Al Haynes save United Airlines Flight 232 when all flight controls were lost, on 19 July 1989. ... Biman Bangladesh Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engined long-range airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. ... The DHL shootdown incident in Baghdad occurred on 22 November 2003, aboard an Airbus A300B4-203F cargo plane, registered OO-DLL, operating on behalf of DHL. At around 10,000 feet, the aircraft was hit by a missile which resulted in the loss of its hydraulic systems. ... There have been aviation incidents in which the control surfaces became unavailable, typically due to loss of hydraulics. ... The National Geographic Channel is a subscription television network that features documentaries produced by the National Geographic Society. ... This article is about a TV series. ... This is an episode list for the documentary television program Mayday (also called Air Crash Investigation[s] or Air Emergency in markets outside Canada). ... Reise, Reise (German for Arise, Arise (naval jargon) or Travel, travel or Journey, journey) is the German NDH-metal band Rammsteins fourth album. ... Rammstein is a German industrial metal band. ...

References

This article is about a TV series. ... This is an episode list for the documentary television program Mayday (also called Air Crash Investigation[s] or Air Emergency in markets outside Canada). ... is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...

External links

• Reproduction animation of JAL123 (Japanese)
• The record of JAL123 (Japanese with English place names)
• Aircraft Accident Report (PDF, East Asian fonts)
• Accident details at planecrashinfo.com
• Digital Flight Data Recorder (PDF)
• Pre-crash photo of JA8119
• JAL123 CVR (cockpit voice recorder) transcript
• JAL123 CVR (cockpit voice recorder) audio of the final moments of flight (WAV)
• Charlie-Victor-Romeo (a play which features this aircraft accident)

Coordinates: 36°0′5″N, 138°41′38″E PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform audio format, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing audio on PCs. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...