Latest news with #Boeing747SR-46
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- General
- The Irish Sun
Final pics show Japan Airlines Flight 123 mins before crash that left 520 dead… & the critical failure that spelled doom
FOUR decades on, the doomed Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash remains one of the world's worst aviation disasters of all time. Haunting final pictures show the jet just moments before it crashed because of a critical failure - killing 520 people on board. 7 A photo taken by a witness on the ground appears to show Flight 123 missing its tailfin Credit: Wikipedia 7 The last photo taken on board the fatal Japan Airlines flight shows oxygen masks hanging Credit: Reddit 7 The plane was headed to Osaka after departing Tokyo Credit: Reddit Tragedy struck on August 12, 1985 when the Boeing 747SR-46 jet crashed just 62 miles northwest of Tokyo. On board the jet were 509 passengers and 15 crew members. Only four of them survived. The flight, dubbed the "Titanic of Japan", took off from Tokyo and was headed to Osaka but tragically crashed in the remote area of remote mountain area of Mount Takamagahara. read more aviation disasters BALL OF FIRE 25 children killed along with teacher & pilot as jet crashes into school And to date, it remains the worst disaster in the history of Japanese aviation. One of the last few pictures shows the Jet missing its tailfin. Another picture, thought to be the final picture taken on board, shows oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling. It is thought that the plane was perfectly fine, and the journey began normally after all the routine checks. But just 12 minutes after takeoff, First Officer Yutaka Sasaki and Captain Masami Takahama noticed a tremor tear through the plane. The jet decompressed rapidly, which caused the ceiling near the rear bathrooms to collapse. How pilots cutting engines sparked TWO plane disasters after South Korea & India crashes as calls for cockpit CCTV grow It extensively damaged the fuselage and destroyed the plane's vertical stabiliser and all four hydraulic lines. Moments after the tremor was detected, the air condensed into a fog, forcing the oxygen masks down. For a terrifying 30 minutes, the pilots fought hard to claim control of the plane, but the jet was in a vicious and disorienting cycle of falling and then rising. Passengers shouted as they were thrown around the plane by the rapid spiralling, while the pilots fought to bring the jet to safety. But the out-of-control plane continued to descend and got closer to the mountains, where it crashed and exploded. 7 According to reports, Captain Takahama made a last-ditch effort to keep the aircraft aloft by using the engine thrust to ascend and fall. He is believed to have yelled: "This is the end!" Around 20 minutes after impact, US Air Force serviceman Michael Antonucci reported the crash site. In the aftermath of the crash, the search and rescue efforts were delayed, and survivors were not found until several hours later. This delay likely contributed to the high death toll, as some victims who survived the initial impact died before help could arrive. Japanese officials delayed sending a rescue crew, assuming that no one had survived, and told Antonucci not to discuss the disaster. 7 Japan Airlines (JAL) flight 123 crash site Credit: Getty 7 Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force in a rescue operation at the crash site at the ridge of Mount Takamagahara Credit: Getty - Contributor 7 Photo dated 13 August 1985 shows a wing from the Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 that crashed Credit: AFP The Japanese military only sent rescue teams in the following morning, a whole 12 hours after the crash had been reported. Antonucci revealed a decade later: "Four people survived. Many more could have. "At the time it occurred, I was ordered not to speak about it." One doctor involved in the rescue mission said: "If the discovery had come 10 hours earlier, we could have found more survivors." Yumi Ochiai, a survivor, claimed to have heard other survivors wailing all through the night, until the intense cold finally got to them. Antonucci added that had it "not been for efforts to avoid embarrassing Japanese authorities", a team of US Marines could have searched the wreckage less than two hours after the crash. The puzzle began to come together as more teams were dispatched to retrieve body and plane parts. Two years later, after a comprehensive investigation, Japan's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission determined that the decompression was caused by a botched repair by Boeing workers. The same aircraft had thudded heavily upon landing at Itami Airport in June 1978, causing extensive tail damage. The impact also cracked open the pressure bulkhead, necessitating immediate repairs. However, Boeing's repair personnel utilised two spice plates parallel to the break in the bulkhead instead of one, rendering the repair job worthless. According to Ron Schleede, a member of the US National Transportation Safety Board, the crew did everything they could to avoid the disaster, which was "inevitable".
Metro
7 days ago
- General
- Metro
How four people survived the second-deadliest plane crash that killed 520
Only four people were pulled out alive from the wreckage of the doomed Japan Airlines flight 123 after it crashed on a mountainside. One of the world's deadliest plane disasters struck four decades ago when the passenger jet carrying 524 people crashed shortly after takeoff. Four people, including an eight-year-old child, miraculously escaped the decimated wreckage after the Boeing 747SR-46 plane crashed onto a remote mountain area of Mount Takamagahara. The Japan Airlines flight 123, known as JAL123, remains Japan's worst aviation accident to date. It has been dubbed the Titanic of Japan's aviation world. This is the story of the doomed Japan Airlines flight 123 that will never be forgotten. The Boeing plane took off from Tokyo Haneda Airport and headed towards Itami, Osaka, as usual on August 12, 1985. The plane was packed with families flying on their summer vacations to escape the hot and humid Tokyo weather – a total of 509 passengers and a 15-strong crew. But just 12 minutes after takeoff, parts of the plane exploded due to decompression, causing the ceiling near the toilets to collapse and tearing a hole in the fuselage designed to protect the passengers. To make matters worse, the explosion damaged the tail fin and the four hydraulic lines on the plane, causing it to rise and fall uncontrollably after the pilots had declared an emergency. For a terrifying 30 minutes, the pilots fought to regain control of the plane, which climbed and fell again as they attempted to return to Tokyo. Meanwhile, passengers began to accept their fate and wrote final messages to their loved ones. But the out-of-control plane continued to descend and got closer to the mountains, where it crashed and exploded. It took rescue crews more than 15 hours to get to the crash site, where four survivors, all women, had managed to stay alive. Off-duty flight attendant Yumi Ochiai, mum Hiroko Yoshizaki, 34, with her eight-year-old daughter Mikiko, and Keiko Kawakai, 12, who lost her family in the crash. Keiko was shot out of the plane on impact and catapulted into a tree, where she was found with serious injuries. All four had sat in the rear of the aircraft. The women were seated in the final rows – from 54 to row 60. Yumi recalled the final moments in the plane before everything went silent: 'After the crash, I heard harsh panting and gasping noises from many people. I hear it coming from everywhere, all around me. There was a boy crying 'mother.' I clearly heard a young woman saying 'Come quickly!'.' The JAL123 disaster is known as Japan's aviation industry's equivalent of the sinking of the Titanic, Christopher Hood, a fellow at the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society, said. Hood, who has written a book about the crash and spent a night at the crash site to get into the shoes of the survivors, said as many as 100 people might have survived the impact. 'If the rescue teams arrive sooner, there would have been more survivors. The survivors there knew it was getting quieter and quieter. Fifteen hours is a long time.' He said the lack of GPS at the time contributed to possible miscalculations as search aircraft relayed the location back to the control tower in degrees and miles, but 'the problem is the speed they are going at, making it it difficult to judge and there's a margin of error. With degrees, one degree makes a 1-2km difference already. 'And the defence force reported back in nautical miles, while Japan uses kilometres. It was the perfect storm and it was a mountainous area.' The Japanese society is less interested in the individual survivours than often is the case in the UK and US, Hood explained. Most of the media attention focused on the 12-year-old Keiko, who became a nurse and helped victims when an earthquake hit. Hood said the cause of the crash is still debated to this day. While the official cause is a faulty repair to the bulkhead, which led to the decompression explosion, an alternative theory is that air was leaking out slowly, which the tail was not designed to take, eventually causing it to break. A wilder theory, which has been debunked, is that the plane was hit by a missile, which then led to cover-up attempts. Hood said the same plane had been involved in an accident in 1978, claiming that the repairs were done 'incorrectly.' He told Metro the impact of the crash was 'huge' in 1985, and it has been etched in the society's consciousness. 'The list of passengers was read on TV, and this is how many people found out about their loved one,' Hood said. He said: 'It is the deadliest single plane crash, and it had an incredible number of people for a domestic flight. Imagine this happening on a flight from London to Edinburgh. 'The crash happened on August 12, which is like the day of the dead or Halloween, and it added symbolism. There were famous people on board, and so many people connect themselves to the crash with one or two steps.' More Trending The disaster struck just days after the 40th anniversary of the brutal atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which added to the collective pain. Hood said the next generations in Japan will learn about the disaster and interest will 'only grow rather than go away.' 'And families are keen for it to be reported. This crash has become the figurehead of all transport accidents.' Every year, people gather at the JAL123 at the Osutaka ridge in the Ueno village, with this year marking 40 years. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Virgin Atlantic relaunches flights to 'iconic' winter sun destination after 6 years MORE: 'Europe's Hawaii' that's often dubbed a 'Canaries alternative' is having a record-breaking year MORE: Emirates announces flight rule change that will affect every passenger from October 2025
