Japan Airlines Crash Compilation - Besiege

Japan Airlines 123 was a commercial passenger flight from Tokyo, Japan to Osaka, Japan on August 12th, 1985 carrying 524 people. The plane was a 747SR registered JA8119.

Crash:

At 6:24 PM 12 minutes after take-off the rear pressure bulkhead of the plane ruptured, this caused a partial collapse of the aft fuselage ceiling inwards and a large portion of the vertical stabilizer to separate, all 4 hydraulic lines were cut and the plane was almost uncontrollable. The plane entered a permanent state of "Dutch Rolling" and a "Phugoid Cycle" causing it to ascend and descend rapidly as well as roll uncontrollably from side to side.
For 32 minutes the pilots held on controlling the plane by thrust from the engines, they lowered the landing gear in an attempt to quell the Dutch rolls and the Phugoid cycle and to lower their altitude, this worked but the problem was the plane wasn't flying east back to Tokyo, they were flying west into mountains. The plane got too low and the pilots couldn't regain control, at 6:56 PM the plane's right wing struck a ridge at 5,020 feet near Mount Mikuni causing the No.4 engine to separate, the plane flipped on its back and exploded on a ridge at 1,870 feet on Mount Takamagahara. Rescuers weren't able to reach the crash site until the next morning and by then most of the survivors had died from their injuries, only 4 females survived the crash with 520 people dying making this the deadliest single-plane crash in history.

Investigation:

7 years prior while the same plane was operating as Japan Airlines 115 on June 2nd, 1978 while the plane was landing at Osaka it bounced on landing whereupon the tail struck the runway, the tail was damaged and improperly repaired as 2 splice plates were used instead of 1 continuous plate.


Japan Airlines 350 was a commercial passenger flight from Fukuoka, Japan to Tokyo, Japan on February 9th, 1982 carrying 174 people.

Crash:

As the plane neared Tokyo the Captain Katagiri suddenly pushed the nose down and reduced the throttles to idle, the First Officer managed to wrestle the controls from him but the plane crashed into shallow water causing the nose to separate from the plane killing 24 people.

Investigation:

Katagiri was diagnosed post-crash with paranoid schizophrenia and he tried to commit suicide by crashing the plane, he was found not guilty by Japanese courts.


Japan Airlines 446 was a commercial passenger flight from Copenhagen, Denmark to Tokyo, Japan with a stopover in Moscow, Russia on November 28th, 1972 carrying 76 people.

Crash:

As the plane took off from Moscow it stalled at 330 feet and crashed into the ground 490 feet past the runway killing 62 people with 14 survivors.

Investigation:

The spoiler lever on the plane was stiff and the First Officer forgot to retract the spoilers causing them to take-off with the spoilers deployed, the pilots also forgot to de-ice the engines, and the ice that built up was sucked into the engines causing multiple surges stalling the plane out.


Japan Airlines 471 was a commercial passenger flight from Tokyo, Japan to London, the United Kingdom with stopovers in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Thailand, New Delhi, India, Cairo, Egypt, Rome, Italy, and Frankfurt, West Germany carrying 87 people on June 14th, 1972.

Crash:

The plane was on an ILS approach to New Delhi when it crashed at 2:50 AM about 20 km short of the runway on the bank of a river killing 82 people on board and 4 on the ground with 5 survivors on the plane.

Investigation:

The pilots had connected to an erroneous signal on the ground that the crew believed was the ILS signal from the airport, they descended prematurely without establishing visual contact with the runway and crashed in the dead of night.


Japan Airlines 715 was a commercial passenger flight from Tokyo, Japan to Singapore with stopovers in Hong Kong and Subang, Malaysia on September 27th, 1977 carrying 79 people.

Crash:

While approaching Subang the plane descended below the minimum safe altitude and crashed into a hill killing 34 people with 45 survivors, there was no fire but the plane did break up.

Investigation:

The crew did have visual contact with the runway for a short while but lost it due to the weather, the Captain had faith that they would regain visual contact but they never did.