Japan Air Lines Flight 350 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, registered ''JA8061'', on a domestic scheduled passenger flight from

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

, to

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 ...

in Japan. The airplane crashed 9 February 1982 on approach to Haneda Airport in

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

, resulting in 24 fatalities. Flight 350 was the first crash for Japan Air Lines in the 1980s. The investigation traced the cause of the crash to the deliberate actions of the captain.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 registered as JA8061. It was manufactured by

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

in 1967 and in its 15 years of service, it had logged 36955 airframe hours. It was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B engines.

Crew

The crew consisted of 35-year-old

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 ...

Seiji Katagiri (片桐清二 ''Katagiri Seiji''), 33-year-old First Officer Yoshifumi Ishikawa, and 48-year-old

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 ...

Yoshimi Ozaki. The cause of the crash was traced to Katagiri's deliberate crashing of the plane.

Flight

One report states that the captain engaged the inboard

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

' thrust-reversers in flight.Stokes, Henry Scott.
Cockpit Fight Reported on Jet That Crashed in Tokyo
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. 14 February 1982. Retrieved 24 June 2011. Another report states that, during descent, Katagiri "cancelled

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 ...

, pushed his controls forward and retarded the throttles to idle."Aviation Safety Network
''Accident description''. Retrieved 4 April 2015. Ishikawa and Ozaki worked to restrain Katagiri and regain control. Despite their efforts, the DC-8's descent could not be completely checked and it touched down in shallow water 510 meters (1673 feet) short of the runway. During the crash, the cockpit section of the DC-8 separated from the rest of the fuselage and continued to travel for several meters before coming to a halt. Among the 166 passengers and 8 crew, 24 died. Following the incident, Katagiri, one of the first people to take a rescue boat, told rescuers that he was an office worker to avoid being identified as the captain. Katagiri was later found to have paranoid schizophrenia prior to the incident, which resulted in his being ruled not guilty by reason of insanity. Investigators for the Japanese government attributed the incident to a lack of proper medical examinations which allowed Katagiri to fly.

Aftermath

Katagiri has since been released from psychiatric care.

References

External links

Final Accident Report
–

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 ( ...

{{JAL Group 1982 murders in Japan Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8 Airliner accidents and incidents involving deliberate crashes Airliner accidents and incidents involving ditching Aviation accidents and incidents in 1982 Aviation accidents and incidents in Tokyo February 1982 in Japan Haneda Airport

350 __NOTOC__ Year 350 ( CCCL) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Nigrinianus (or, less frequently, year 1103 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 3 ...

Mass murder in 1982 20th-century mass murder in Japan 1982 in Tokyo Murder in Tokyo