Flight 123
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Japan Air Lines Flight 123 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
to
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
, Japan. On August12, 1985, the
Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...
flying the route suffered a severe structural failure and explosive decompression 12 minutes after takeoff. After flying under minimum control for 32 minutes, the plane crashed in the area of
Mount Takamagahara Mount Takamagahara (高天原山, ''Takamagahara-yama'') is a mountain in the Gunma Prefecture of Japan, near Ueno village. It is tall. Takamagahara is the world of heaven in Japanese mythology. The crash of Japan Air Lines Flight 123 on 12 Au ...
, 100kilometres () from Tokyo. The aircraft, featuring a high-density seating configuration, was carrying 524people. The crash killed all 15crew members and 505 of the 509 passengers on board, leaving only four survivors. An estimated 20 to 50 passengers survived the initial crash but died from their injuries while awaiting rescue. The crash is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history and remains the deadliest aviation incident in Japan. Japan's
Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission The Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission (AAIC, 航空事故調査委員会 ''Kōkūjiko chōsa iinkai'') was a government agency of Japan which investigated aviation accidents and incidents. It was subordinate to the Ministry of Transport ( ...
(AAIC), assisted by the U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...
, concluded that the structural failure was caused by a faulty repair by
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
technicians following a
tailstrike In aviation, a tailstrike or tail strike occurs when the tail or empennage of an aircraft strikes the ground or other stationary object. This can happen with a fixed-wing aircraft with tricycle undercarriage, in both takeoff where the pilot r ...
seven years earlier. When the faulty repair eventually failed, it resulted in a rapid decompression that ripped off a large portion of the
tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...
and caused the loss of all hydraulic systems and flight controls.


Background


Aircraft

The
Boeing 747SR-46 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
with registration JA8119 was built and delivered to
Japan Air Lines Japan Airlines (JAL) is the flag carrier airline of Japan. JAL is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports, as well as secondary hubs in Osaka's Kansai and Itami airports. The JAL group, which i ...
in 1974. It had accumulated slightly more than 25,000 flight hours and 18,800 cycles (one cycle consisting of takeoff, cabin pressurization, depressurization, and landing).


1978 tailstrike incident

On June 2, 1978, while operating Japan Air Lines Flight 115 along the same route, JA8119 bounced heavily on landing while carrying out an
instrument approach In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a lan ...
to runway 32L at
Itami Airport , often referred to as , is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including its major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is the airport closest to Osaka, being 11 km (7 mi) north of Osaka Station, as well as ...
. The pilot then excessively flared the aircraft, causing a severe
tailstrike In aviation, a tailstrike or tail strike occurs when the tail or empennage of an aircraft strikes the ground or other stationary object. This can happen with a fixed-wing aircraft with tricycle undercarriage, in both takeoff where the pilot r ...
on the second touchdown. Of the 394 people on board, 25 sustained injuries, 23 minor and 2 serious. The
tailstrike In aviation, a tailstrike or tail strike occurs when the tail or empennage of an aircraft strikes the ground or other stationary object. This can happen with a fixed-wing aircraft with tricycle undercarriage, in both takeoff where the pilot r ...
cracked open the
aft pressure bulkhead The aft pressure bulkhead or rear pressure bulkhead is the rear component of the pressure seal in all aircraft that cruise in a tropopause zone in the Earth's atmosphere. It helps maintain pressure when stratocruising and protects the aircraft fro ...
. The damage was repaired by
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
technicians, and the aircraft was returned to service. The aircraft had flown for 8,830 hours at the time.


Crew

At the time of the accident, the aircraft was on the fifth of its six planned flights of the day. The flight had 15 crew members, consisting of 3 cockpit crew and 12 cabin crew. The cockpit crew consisted of: *
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
, aged 49, served as a training instructor for First Officer Yutaka Sasaki on the flight, supervising him while handling the radio communications, and also acting as first officer. Takahama was a veteran pilot, having logged about 12,424 flight hours, including about 4,842 hours in 747s. * First Officer , age 39, was undergoing training for promotion to captain, and flew Flight 123 as one of his final training/evaluation flights, acting as captain. He had logged about 3,963 flight hours, including about 2,665 hours in 747s. *
Flight Engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...
, age 46, was a veteran flight engineer having logged about 9,831 flight hours, including about 3,846 hours in 747s. In 1987, when the investigation concluded, all three cockpit crew members were posthumously awarded the
Polaris Award The Polaris Award is the highest decoration associated with civil aviation, awarded by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) to airline crews in recognition for acts of exceptional airmanship Airmanship is ski ...
.


Passengers

The flight was during the
Obon or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ance ...
holiday period when many Japanese people make trips to their hometowns or to resorts. Twenty-two non-Japanese were on board the flight, including four residents of Hong Kong, two from Italy and six from the United States, and one each from
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
and the United Kingdom. Some ostensible foreigners had dual nationality, and some of them were residents of Japan. The four survivors, all female, were seated on the left side and toward the middle of seat rows 54–60, in the rear of the aircraft. They were Yumi Ochiai, an off-duty flight attendant; Hiroko and Mikiko Yoshizaki, a mother and her 8-year-old daughter; and Keiko Kawakami, a 12-year-old girl who lost her parents and sister in the crash. Among the victims were Japanese singer and actor
Kyu Sakamoto , legally registered as since 1956, was a Japanese singer and actor. He was best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" (known as "Sukiyaki (song), Sukiyaki" in English-speaking markets), which was sung in Japane ...
, and banker Akihisa Yukawa, the father of violinist and composer
Diana Yukawa is a Japanese and British violinist and composer. She has released four solo albums and one digital EP. Personal life Yukawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Japanese banker Akihisa Yukawa and English ballet dancer Susanne Bayly. Her father died o ...
. The flight connected two of the largest cities of Japan, and a number of other celebrities initially booked the flight but ultimately had either switched to another flight or used the
Tokaido Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the San'yō Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opening in 19 ...
instead. These include
Sanma Akashiya is a Japanese comedian, TV presenter, radio personality and actor most commonly known as Sanma-san. His real name is . His talent agency is Yoshimoto Kogyo and his shishô (master) back when he studied '' rakugo'' is Shōfukutei Matsunosuke. T ...
,
Masataka Itsumi was a Japanese television announcer, tarento, writer, singer and master of ceremonies. His nickname was "It's me". He was friends with Shingo Yamashiro. His son, Taro Itsumi is an actor, and his daughter, Ai Itsumi is an actress, tarento, and ...
and his family,
Johnny Kitagawa John Hiromu Kitagawa (Japanese name ; October 23, 1931 – July 9, 2019), known professionally as , was a Japanese business magnate, promoter, record producer. He was best known as the founder of Johnny & Associates, a talent agency for numerous ...
, and the then cast of ''
Shōten is a Japanese TV comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Com ...
''. Some members of the
Shonentai were a three-member Japanese boy band created by entertainment company Johnny & Associates, now rebranded to Starto Entertainment. They debuted on December 12, 1985. They were one of Japan's leading Japanese idol groups of the 1980s. The group ...
were also scheduled to travel with Kitagawa but had stayed in Tokyo.


Sequence of events


Take-off and decompression

The aircraft landed as JL366 at
Haneda Airport , also known as and sometimes abbreviated to ''Tokyo-Haneda'', is the busier of the two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary domestic base of J ...
in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, from
Fukuoka Airport — formerly known as Itazuke Air Base — is an international airport located east of Hakata Station in Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. The facility has two runways and covers 355 hectares (877 acres) of land. Fukuoka Airport is the principal a ...
at 5:12p.m. After almost an hour on the ground, Flight 123 pushed back from gate 18 at 6:04p.m. and took off from Runway 15L at 6:12p.m., 12 minutes behind schedule. Twelve minutes after takeoff, at 6:24p.m., at near cruising altitude over
Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the i ...
east of
Higashiizu, Shizuoka is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Kamo District, Shizuoka, Kamo District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 12,155 in 6,264 households, and a population density of 160 persons per km2. The total a ...
, the aircraft underwent
rapid decompression An uncontrolled decompression is an undesired drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as a pressurised aircraft cabin or hyperbaric chamber, that typically results from human error, structural failure, or impact, causing the pressurised vess ...
,  bringing down the ceiling around the rear lavatories, damaging the unpressurised fuselage aft of the plane, unseating the
vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...
, and severing all four hydraulic lines. A photograph taken from the ground shows the vertical stabilizer missing. The pilots set their
transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...
to broadcast a
distress signal A distress signal, also known as a distress call, is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals are communicated by transmitting radio signals, displaying a visually observable item or illumination, or making a sou ...
. Captain Takahama contacted Tokyo Area Control Center to declare an emergency, and request a return to Haneda Airport, descending and following
emergency landing An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or involving a sudden need for a passenger or crew on board to term ...
vectors to Oshima. Tokyo Control approved a right-hand turn to a heading of 090° east back toward Oshima, and the aircraft entered an initial right-hand bank of 40°, several degrees greater than observed previously. Captain Takahama ordered First Officer Sasaki to reduce the
bank angle A banked turn (or banking turn) is a turn or change of direction in which the vehicle banks or inclines, usually towards the inside of the turn. For a road or railroad this is usually due to the roadbed having a transverse down-slope towards the ...
,  and expressed confusion when the aircraft did not respond to the control wheel being turned left. The flight engineer reported that hydraulic pressure was dropping. The captain repeated the order to reduce the bank angle, as the
autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...
had disengaged. He ordered the first officer to bank it back, then ordered him to pull up. None of these attempted maneuvers produced a response. The pilots realised the aircraft had become virtually uncontrollable, and Captain Takahama ordered the copilot to descend.


6:27–6:34 p.m.

Heading over the
Izu Peninsula The is a mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan, the largest of the four main islands of Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsu ...
at 6:26p.m., the aircraft turned away from the Pacific Ocean and back toward the shore,  but only turned right far enough to fly a north-westerly course. Seeing that the aircraft was still flying west away from Haneda, Tokyo Control contacted the aircraft again. After confirming that the pilots were declaring an emergency, the controller asked the nature of the emergency. At this point, hypoxia appeared to have begun setting in, as the pilots did not respond. Also, the captain and co-pilot asked the flight engineer repeatedly if hydraulic pressure had been lost, seemingly unable to comprehend it.  Tokyo Control contacted the aircraft again and repeated the direction to descend and turn to a 90° heading to Oshima. Only then did the captain report that the aircraft had become uncontrollable. (Tokyo: "Japan Air 123 icfly heading 090 radar vector to Oshima." JAL123: "But now uncontrol." Tokyo: "Uncontrol,
roger Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages">Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") ...
understood.")  The aircraft traversed
Suruga Bay Suruga Bay (駿河湾, ''Suruga-wan'') is a bay on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is situated north of a straight line from Omaezaki Point to Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula and surrounded by Honsh ...
and passed over
Yaizu, Shizuoka is a city located in central Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 139,578 in 57,593 households, and a population density of 2000 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Yaizu is a noted port for commer ...
,  at 6:31:02p.m. Tokyo Control asked if they could descend, and Captain Takahama replied that they were now descending, stating that their altitude was . Captain Takahama declined Tokyo Control's suggestion to divert to Nagoya Airport away, instead preferring to land at Haneda,  which had the facilities to handle the 747. The
flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to colloquially as a "black box", an outdated nam ...
shows that the flight did not descend, but was rising and falling uncontrollably.  With the total loss of hydraulic control and non-functional control surfaces, the aircraft entered
phugoid In aviation, a phugoid or fugoid () is an aircraft motion in which the vehicle Aircraft principal axes, pitches up and climbs, and then pitches down and descends, accompanied by speeding up and slowing down as it goes "downhill" and "uphill". Th ...
oscillations lasting about 90 seconds, in which airspeed decreased as it climbed and increased as it fell. The rise in airspeed increased the lift over the wings, resulting in the aircraft climbing and slowing down, then descending and gaining speed again. Almost immediately after the separation of the stabiliser and rudder removed the only means of damping yaw, the aircraft began to exhibit
Dutch roll Dutch roll is an aircraft motion consisting of an out-of- phase combination of "tail-wagging" (yaw) and rocking from side to side (roll). This yaw-roll coupling is one of the basic flight dynamic modes (others include phugoid, short period, ...
, simultaneously yawing right and
bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
ing left, before yawing back left and banking right. At some points the banking motion became very profound, with large arcs of around 50° in cycles of 12 seconds. Despite the complete loss of control, the pilots continued to turn the control wheel, pull on the control column, and move the rudder pedals up until the moment of the crash. The pilots also began efforts to establish control using differential engine
thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that ...
, as the aircraft slowly wandered back toward Haneda. Their efforts had limited success. The unpressurised aircraft rose and fell in an altitude range of for 18 minutes, from the moment of decompression until around 6:40p.m., with the pilots seemingly unable to figure out how to descend without flight controls. This was possibly due to the effects of hypoxia at such altitudes, as the pilots seemed to have difficulty comprehending their situation as the aircraft pitched and rolled uncontrollably. The pilots possibly were focused, instead, on the cause of the explosion they had heard, and the subsequent difficulty in controlling the jet. The flight engineer did say they should put on their oxygen masks when word reached the cockpit that the rear-most passenger masks had stopped working. None of the pilots put on their oxygen masks, however, though the captain simply replied "yes" to both suggestions by the flight engineer to do so. The accident report indicates that the captain's disregard of the suggestion is one of several features "regarded as hypoxia-related in he CVR record ng" Their voices can be heard relatively clearly on the cockpit area microphone for the entire duration, until the crash, indicating that they did not put on their oxygen masks at any point in the flight.


6:34–6:48 p.m.: Limited control

At 6:35p.m. the flight engineer responded to multiple (hitherto unanswered) calls from Japan Air Tokyo via the
SELCAL In international aviation, SELCAL or SelCal is a selective-calling radio system that can alert an aircraft's crew that a ground radio station wishes to communicate with the aircraft. SELCAL uses a ground-based encoder and radio transmitter to ...
(selective-calling) system. Having just been informed about the inoperative oxygen masks, the flight engineer voiced the (erroneous) assumption that the R-5 door was broken and informed the company that they were making an emergency descent. Japan Air Tokyo asked if they intended to return to Haneda, to which the flight engineer responded that they were making an emergency descent, and to continue to monitor them. Eventually, the pilots regained limited control of the aircraft by adjusting engine thrust. In doing so, they dampened the phugoid cycle and somewhat stabilised their altitude. However, given jet engines' inertia and the resulting response time (to changes in throttle), of Dutch roll mode by use of the differential thrust between the right and left engines is estimated practically impossible for a pilot." Shortly after 6:40p.m., they lowered the landing gear using the emergency extension system in an attempt to dampen the phugoid cycles and Dutch rolls further. This was somewhat successful, as the phugoid cycles were dampened almost completely, and the Dutch roll was damped significantly, but lowering the gear also decreased the directional control the pilots were getting by applying power to one side of the aircraft, and the aircrew's ability to control the aircraft deteriorated. Shortly after lowering the gear, the flight engineer asked if the speed brakes should be used, but the pilots did not acknowledge the request. The aircraft then began a right-hand descending 420° turn from a heading of 040° at 6:40p.m. to a heading of 100° at 6:45p.m., flying in a loop over Otsuki, due to a thrust imbalance created from having the power setting on Engine 1 (the left-most engine) higher than the other three engines. The aircraft also began descending from to , as the pilots had reduced engine thrust to near idle from 6:43 to 6:48p.m. Upon descending to at 6:45:46p.m., the pilots again reported an uncontrollable aircraft. At this time, the aircraft began to turn slowly to the left, while continuing to descend. The thicker air allowed the pilots more oxygen, and their hypoxia appeared to have subsided somewhat, as they were communicating more frequently. The pilots also appeared to be understanding how grave their situation had become, with Captain Takahama exclaiming, "This may be hopeless" at 6:46:33p.m. At 6:47p.m., the pilots recognised that they were beginning to turn toward the mountains. Despite efforts by the crew to get the aircraft to continue to turn right, it instead turned left, flying directly toward the mountainous terrain on a westerly heading. Around 6:50p.m. - approximately 6 minutes before the aircraft crashed - a photographer on the ground in
Okutama is a town located in the western portion of Tokyo Prefecture, Japan, at a distance of roughly west-northwest of Tokyo Imperial Palace. , the town had an estimated population of 4,949, and a population density of 22 persons per km2. The total a ...
captured a photograph of the 747, which showed that the vertical stabiliser was missing.


6:48–6:55 p.m.: Final loss of control

As the aircraft continued west, it descended below and was getting dangerously close to the mountains. Because of the thicker air at lower altitude, the cabin altitude alert momentarily turned off at this time, before resuming for the rest of the flight. The captain briefly ordered maximum engine power to attempt to get the aircraft to climb to avoid the mountains, and engine power was added abruptly at 6:48p.m., before being reduced back to near idle; then at 6:49p.m., it was ordered raised again. This greatly excited the phugoid motion, and the aircraft pitched up, before pitching back down after power was reduced. When power was added again, the aircraft rapidly pitched up to 40°, and the airspeed dropped down to at 6:49:30p.m., briefly stalling at . The captain immediately ordered maximum power at 6:49:40p.m. as the
stick shaker Stick, sticks or the stick may refer to: Thin elongated objects * Twig or branch * Walking stick, a device to facilitate balancing while walking * Shepherd's crook * Shillelagh * Swagger stick * Digging stick * Swizzle stick, used to stir drinks ...
sounded. The aircraft's airspeed increased as it was brought into an unsteady climb. Possibly in order to prevent another stall, at 6:51p.m., the captain lowered the flaps to 5 units—due to the lack of hydraulics, using an alternate electrical system—in an additional attempt to exert control over the stricken jet. It took 3 minutes and 10 seconds for the trailing edge flaps to reach 5 units. The leading edge flaps except for the left and right outer groups were also extended and the extension was completed at 6:52:39p.m. From 6:49:03 to 6:52:11p.m., Japan Air Tokyo attempted to call the aircraft again via the SELCAL
radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
system. During the entire period, the SELCAL alarm continued to ring, to which the pilots did not react. The aircraft reached at 6:53p.m., when the captain reported an uncontrollable aircraft for the third time. Shortly afterward, the controller asked the crew to switch the radio frequency to 119.7 for Tokyo Approach. Although the pilots did not acknowledge the request over the radio, they switched frequencies as instructed. Tokyo Approach then contacted the flight via the SELCAL system, briefly activating the corresponding alarm again until the flight engineer responded. At this point, the flight crew requested to be given their position, which, at 6:54p.m., was reported to the flight as northwest of Haneda, and west of
Kumagaya is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 195,277 in 87,827 households and a population density of 1200 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kumagaya is one of the largest cit ...
. At 6:55p.m., the captain requested flap extension, and the co-pilot called out a flap extension to 10 units, but the flaps had already extended past 5 units at 6:54:30p.m. and had reached 20 units 1 minute and 2 seconds later. Meanwhile, the aircraft had started banking abnormally toward the right; this might have been most likely due to an imbalance in the lift generated by the left and right flaps. Power was increased at the same time. While the flaps continued to extend, a differential thrust setting caused engine power on the left side to be slightly higher than on the right side, adding to the roll to the right. One minute later, the flaps were extended to about 25 units, the bank angle exceeded 60°, and the nose began to drop. Captain Takahama immediately ordered the flaps to be retracted and power was added abruptly, but still with higher power settings on the left engines than on the right. The asymmetric thrust settings continued to increase as the bank angle continued and exceeded 80°. The captain was heard on the CVR desperately requesting for the flaps to be retracted and for more power to be applied in a last-ditch effort to raise the nose. The aircraft continued an unrecoverable right-hand descent toward the mountains as the bank angle recovered to about 70° and engines were pushed to full power, during which the
ground proximity warning system A Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) is a system designed to alert pilots if their aircraft is in immediate danger of flying into the ground or an obstacle. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines GPWS as a type of ...
sounded. In the final moments, as the airspeed exceeded , the pitch attitude leveled out and the aircraft ceased descending, with the aircraft and passengers/crew being subjected to 3 g of upward vertical acceleration.


6:56 p.m.: Impact

The aircraft was still in a 40° right-hand bank when the right wing clipped a ridge containing a "U-shaped ditch" west-northwest of the previous ridge at an elevation of . It is speculated that this impact separated the outer third of the right wing, and two engines, which were "dispersed ahead". After this impact, the aircraft flipped on its back, struck another ridge northwest from the second ridge, near Mount Takamagahara, and exploded. The impact registered on a
seismometer A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...
located in the Shin-Etsu Earthquake Observatory at
Tokyo University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
from 6:56:27p.m. as a small shock, to 6:56:32p.m. as a larger shock, believed to have been caused by the final crash. The shockwaves took an estimated 2.0–2.3 seconds to reach the seismometer, making the estimated time of the final crash 6:56:30p.m. Thus, 32 minutes had elapsed from the bulkhead failure to the crash.


Crash site

The aircraft crashed at an elevation of in Sector 76, State Forest, 3577 Aza Hontani, Ouaza Narahara, Ueno Village, Tano District,
Gunma Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of . Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fuk ...
. The east-west ridge is about north-northwest of Mount Mikuni. Ed Magnuson of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine said that the area where the aircraft crashed was referred to as the "
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
" of Gunma Prefecture.


Delayed rescue operation

A
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
navigator stationed at
Yokota Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and United States Air Force (USAF) base in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. It occupies portions of Akishima, Fussa, Hamura, Mizuho, Musashimurayama, and Tachikawa. The base houses 14,000 pers ...
published an account in 1995, stating that the U.S. military had monitored the distress calls and prepared a search-and-rescue operation that was aborted at the call of Japanese authorities. A U.S. Air Force
C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...
crew was the first to spot the crash site 20 minutes after impact, while it was still daylight, and radioed the location to the Japanese and Yokota Air Base, where an
Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
helicopter was dispatched. An article in the ''
Pacific Stars and Stripes ''Stars and Stripes'' is a daily American military newspaper reporting on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces and their communities, with an emphasis on those serving outside the United States. It operates from insi ...
'' from 1985 stated that personnel at Yokota were on standby to help with rescue operations, but were never called by the Japanese government. A
JSDF The are the military forces of Japan. Established in 1954, the JSDF comprises the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. They are controlled by the Ministry of Defense wi ...
helicopter later spotted the wreck after nightfall. Poor visibility and the difficult mountainous terrain prevented it from landing at the site. The pilot reported from the air no signs of survivors. Based on this report, JSDF personnel on the ground did not set out to the site on the night of the crash. Instead, they were dispatched to spend the night at a makeshift village erecting tents, constructing helicopter landing ramps, and engaging in other preparations, from the crash site. Rescue teams set out for the site the following morning. Medical staff later found bodies with injuries suggesting that people had survived the crash only to die from
shock Shock may refer to: Common uses Healthcare * Acute stress reaction, also known as psychological or mental shock ** Shell shock, soldiers' reaction to battle trauma * Circulatory shock, a medical emergency ** Cardiogenic shock, resulting from ...
, exposure to low temperatures overnight in the mountains, or injuries that, if tended to earlier, would not have been fatal. One doctor said, "If the discovery had come 10 hours earlier, we could have found more survivors." One of the four survivors, off-duty Japan Air Lines flight
purser A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...
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, these sounds gradually died away during the night.


Investigation

Japan's
Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission The Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission (AAIC, 航空事故調査委員会 ''Kōkūjiko chōsa iinkai'') was a government agency of Japan which investigated aviation accidents and incidents. It was subordinate to the Ministry of Transport ( ...
published their final report on the accident on 19 June 1987. The official cause of the crash according to the investigation was: # The aircraft was involved in a tailstrike incident at Osaka International Airport seven years earlier as JAL Flight 115, which damaged the aircraft's aft pressure bulkhead. # The subsequent repair of the bulkhead did not conform to Boeing's approved repair methods. For reinforcing a damaged bulkhead, Boeing's repair procedure calls for one continuous splice plate with three rows of
rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...
s. The Boeing repair technicians, however, had used two splice plates parallel to the stress crack. Cutting the plate in this manner negated the effectiveness of the row of rivets, reducing the part's resistance to fatigue cracking to about 70% of that for a correct repair. The post-repair inspection by JAL did not discover the defect, as it was covered by overlapping plates. During the investigation, the Accident Investigation Commission calculated that this incorrect installation would fail after about 11,000 pressurization cycles; the aircraft accomplished 12,318 successful flights from the time that the faulty repair was made to when the crash happened. #
  • Consequently, after repeated pressurization cycles during normal flight, the bulkhead gradually started to crack near the row of rivets holding it together. When it finally failed, the resulting rapid decompression ruptured the lines of all four hydraulic systems and ejected the vertical stabiliser. With many of the aircraft's flight controls disabled, the aircraft became uncontrollable.
  • In an unrelated incident on 19 August 1982, while under the control of the first officer, JA8119 suffered a runway strike of the No. 4 engine on landing at
    Chitose Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base located in Chitose, Hokkaidō, adjacent to New Chitose Airport. It is the JASDF's primary base in northern Japan and tasked with monitoring Japan's maritime borders with Russia. It was also Hokkaidō's ...
    in poor visibility. This was repaired successfully and the aircraft again returned to service. This incident did not contribute to the Flight 123 accident.


    Aftermath and legacy

    The Japanese public's confidence in Japan Air Lines took a dramatic downturn in the wake of the disaster, with passenger numbers on domestic routes dropping by one-third. Rumors persisted that Boeing had admitted fault to cover up shortcomings in the airline's inspection procedures, thereby protecting the reputation of a major customer. In the months after the crash, domestic air traffic decreased by as much as 25%. In 1986, for the first time in a decade, fewer passengers boarded JAL's overseas flights during the New Year period than the previous year. Some of them considered switching to
    All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. ANA operates services to both domestic and international destinations and is Japan's largest airline, ahead of its main rival flag carrier Japan Airlines. the airline has approximate ...
    , JAL's main competitor, as a safer alternative. In the aftermath of the incident, JAL president Yasumoto Takagi resigned. Hiroo Tominaga, a JAL maintenance manager, died from suicide intended to atone for the incident, as did Susumu Tajima, an engineer who had inspected and cleared the aircraft as flightworthy following the tailstrike incident, whose suicide note cited "work problems". Between them, JAL, Boeing, and the Japanese government paid substantial compensation to the victims' families. JAL itself paid ¥780 million (US$7.6 million) to the victims' relatives in the form of "condolence money" without admitting liability. In compliance with standard procedures, JAL retired flight number 123 for their Haneda-Itami routes, changing it to Flight 121 and Flight 127 on September 1, 1985. The Boeing 747SRs were still used on the same route operating with the new flight numbers in the years following the crash until their retirement in 2006, with modern
    widebody A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft and in the largest cases as a jumbo jet, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is . ...
    aircraft such as the
    Boeing 747-400D The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range Wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The ''Advanced Series 300'' was announced at the September 1984 Farnboro ...
    and twin-engined widebodies such as the
    Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified ...
    and
    Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the most-built wide-body airliner. ...
    , replacing them during the 1990s and early 2000s. Boeing 747 operations at JAL ended in 2011 when the last
    747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The ''Advanced Series 300'' was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, target ...
    was returned to the lessor as part of the airline's efforts to cut costs, with the aforementioned twin-engine planes,
    Boeing 787 Dreamliner The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, wh ...
    , and
    Airbus A350 The Airbus A350 is a flight length, long-range, wide-body twin-engine airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The initial A350 design proposed in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbu ...
    operating these routes today. This would not be the only time that a 747 crashed due to faulty repair work following a tailstrike. In May 2002, 17 years after Flight 123's crash and 22 years after the accident aircraft's repair,
    China Airlines Flight 611 China Airlines Flight 611 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport) in Taiwan to Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong. On 25 May 2002, the B ...
    from Taipei to Hong Kong with 225 people on board crashed with no survivors when it broke up while cruising at around . Like Flight 123, a doubler plate was not installed based upon Boeing standards. In 2009, stairs with a handrail were installed to facilitate visitors' access to the crash site. On August 12, 2010, for the 25th anniversary of the accident, Japan Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism Minister
    Seiji Maehara is a Japanese politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives of Japan since 1993. He founded and led the political party, Free Education for All, before its merger into Nippon Ishin no Kai on 3 October 2024. Maehara was the ...
    visited the site to remember the victims. Families of the victims, together with local volunteer groups, hold an annual memorial gathering every August 12 near the crash site in Gunma Prefecture. The crash led to the 2006 opening of the
    Safety Promotion Center The is a museum and educational center operated by Japan Airlines to promote airline safety. It is located on the grounds of Tokyo International Airport in Ota, Tokyo, Japan.Haneda Airport , also known as and sometimes abbreviated to ''Tokyo-Haneda'', is the busier of the two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary domestic base of J ...
    . This center was created for training purposes to alert employees to the importance of airline safety and their responsibility to ensure safety. The center has displays regarding
    aviation safety Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of airc ...
    , the history of the crash, and selected pieces of the aircraft and passenger effects (including handwritten farewell notes). It is open to the public by appointment made between one day and two months before the visit. The captain's daughter, Yoko Takahama, who was a high-school student at the time of the crash, went on to become a JAL flight attendant. On June 24, 2022, an oxygen mask belonging to Flight 123 was found near the crash site during road repair work. The discovery came nearly a year after engine parts were also found in the same area. In 2024, the 39th anniversary day climb was joined by JALs President and CEO
    Mitsuko Tottori is a Japanese airline executive. She was named Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Japan Airlines (JAL) in April 2024, becoming the first woman to lead the company. Tottori began her career as a flight attendant ...
    , who began her career with the airline as a flight attendant in 1985, the year of the Flight 123 accident. Speaking with reporters at the event, Tottori said, "I renewed my awareness that there should be no compromise in safety."


    In popular culture

    * The events of Flight 123 were featured in "Out of Control", a season-three (2005) episode of the Canadian TV series ''
    Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
    ,'' which is entitled ''Air Emergency'' and ''Air Disasters'' in the U.S., and ''Air Crash Investigation'' in the UK and elsewhere around the world. The dramatization was broadcast with the title ""(translation: Osutaka Ridge) in Japan. The flight was also included in a ''Mayday'' season-six (2007) ''Science of Disaster'' special, entitled "Fatal Flaw", which was broadcast with the title "Fatal Fix" in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia. The crash was covered again in season 23 of ''Mayday'', in the episode titled "Pressure Point"''.'' * It is featured in season 1, episode 2, of the TV show ''
    Why Planes Crash ''Why Planes Crash'' is a documentary TV series based on aviation accidents and crashes. The series was created, named and produced by Caroline Sommers for NBC News. The series premiered on July 12, 2009, featuring Captain Chesley "Sully" Sulle ...
    '', in an episode called "Breaking Point". * The documentary series ''Aircrash Confidential'' featured the crash in a second-season episode titled "Poor Maintenance", which first aired on March 15, 2012, on the
    Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
    in the United Kingdom. * The
    National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...
    's documentary series ''
    Seconds from Disaster ''Seconds from Disaster'' is a US/UK-produced documentary television programme that investigates historically relevant man-made and natural disasters from the 20th and early 21st centuries. Each episode aims to explain a single incident by anal ...
    '' featured the accident in season six, episode six, titled "Terrified over Tokyo", released December 3, 2012. * '' Seventeen'' (titled in Japanese as ''Climber's High'') the best-selling novel by
    Hideo Yokoyama is a Japanese novelist who specializes in mystery novels. He is also known for his career as a journalist for the Jomo Shimbun, the regional paper in Gunma. He repeated his Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! No. 1 ranking in 2013 with '' Six Four'' (64). ...
    , revolves around the reporting of the crash at the fictional newspaper ''Kita-Kanto Shimbun.'' Yokoyama was a journalist at the ''
    Jōmō Shimbun ''Jōmō Shimbun'' (上毛新聞) is the largest general circulation daily newspaper based in Gunma prefecture, Japan. It was established in 1887 and has a circulation of 280,320. Hideo Yokoyama, a novelist, had worked for the ''Jōmō Shimbun ...
    '' at the time of the crash. A film released in 2008, and also titled '' Climber's High'', is based on the novel. * In 2009, the film ''
    Shizumanu Taiyō (lit. ''The Never-setting Sun'') is a 2009 Japanese film directed by Setsurō Wakamatsu. It is also known as ''The Unbroken'' in the United States. ''Shizumanu Taiyō'' is based on a novel by Toyoko Yamasaki which centers on Hajime Onchi, an em ...
    ,'' starring
    Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. He is best known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in '' Letters from Iwo Jima'' and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in ''The Last Samurai'', for which he was nominated for the Academy Awa ...
    , was released for national distribution in Japan. The film gives a semifictional account of the internal airline corporate disputes and politics surrounding the crash. The film does not mention Japanese Air Lines by name, using the name "National Airlines", instead. JAL not only refused to co-operate with the making of the film, but also bitterly criticised the film, saying that it "not only damages public trust in the company but lsocould lead to a loss of customers." The movie features music by
    Diana Yukawa is a Japanese and British violinist and composer. She has released four solo albums and one digital EP. Personal life Yukawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Japanese banker Akihisa Yukawa and English ballet dancer Susanne Bayly. Her father died o ...
    , whose father was one of the victims of this disaster. * The cockpit voice recording of the incident was incorporated into the script of a 1999 play called ''
    Charlie Victor Romeo ''Charlie Victor Romeo'' is a 1999 play, and later a 2013 film based on the play, whose script consists of almost-verbatim transcripts from six real aviation accidents and incidents. "Charlie Victor Romeo," or CVR, derived from the aviation ph ...
    ''. * The 2004 album ''
    Reise, Reise ''Reise, Reise'' (; a German '' military wake-up call'', literally "(a)rise, (a)rise") is the fourth studio album by Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. It was released on 27 September 2004 through Universal Music in Germany and followed shor ...
    '' by German band
    Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph ...
    is loosely inspired by the crash. The final moments of the cockpit voice recording are hidden in the
    pregap The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents (TOC). The pregap ("index 00") is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence. P ...
    of the first track on some CD pressings of the album.


    See also

    *
    List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft __NOTOC__ This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft includes notable events that have a corresponding Wikipedia article. Entries in this list involve passenger or cargo aircraft that are operating commercially and meet ...
    *
    China Airlines Flight 611 China Airlines Flight 611 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport) in Taiwan to Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong. On 25 May 2002, the B ...


    Sources

    * ** * (Tailstrike incident report) *


    References


    External links


    Learning from the PastArchive
    Japan Air Lines


    JAL123 CVR (cockpit voice recorder) transcript

    "Christopher Hood's Research about JL123"
    * ()
    The record of JAL123 (Japanese with English place names)Archive
    * * *
    Archive
    *
    Planesafe.org: JAL123Archive


    !--Old URL: https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50E12F73E5C0C7B8CDDA80994DD484D81--> * {{Authority control 1985 in Japan Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 747 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure Airliner accidents and incidents caused by maintenance errors Airliner accidents and incidents caused by tailstrikes Airliner accidents and incidents involving in-flight depressurization August 1985 in Japan Aviation accidents and incidents caused by loss of control Aviation accidents and incidents in 1985 Aviation accidents and incidents in Japan History of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force
    123 123 may refer to: * The first three positive Arabic numerals * 123 (number), the natural number following 122 and preceding 124 * AD 123, a year of the Julian calendar, in the second century AD * 123 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * ...