Japan Air Lines Flight 123

Japan Air Lines Flight 123 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Tokyo to Osaka, Japan. On the evening of Monday, 12 August 1985, the Boeing 747 flying the route suffered a severe structural failure and explosive decompression 12 minutes after takeoff. After flying under minimal control for 32 minutes, the plane crashed in the area of Mount Takamagahara, 100Template:Spaceskilometres (Template:Convert) from Tokyo.

The aircraft, featuring a high-density seating configuration, was carrying 524Template:Spacespeople. The crash killed all 15Template:Spacescrew 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<ref name="aviation-safety.net">Template:Cite web</ref> and remains the deadliest aviation incident in Japan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Japan's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC),<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp assisted by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board,<ref name="japantimes"/> concluded that the structural failure was caused by a faulty repair by Boeing technicians following a tailstrike seven years earlier. When the faulty repair eventually failed, it resulted in a rapid decompression that ripped off a large portion of the tail and caused the loss of function of all hydraulic systems and flight controls.

Aircraft

The Boeing 747SR-46 with registration JA8119 was built and delivered to Japan Air Lines 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).<ref name="aviation-safety.net"/>

1978 tailstrike incident

On 2 June 1978, while operating Japan Air Lines Flight 115 along the same route, JA8119 bounced heavily on landing while carrying out an instrument approach to runway 32L at Itami Airport. The pilot then excessively flared the aircraft, causing a severe tailstrike on the second touchdown. Of the 394 people on board, 25 sustained injuries, 23 minor and 2 serious. The tailstrike cracked open the aft pressure bulkhead. The damage was repaired by Boeing technicians, and the aircraft was returned to service.<ref name="mlit.go.jp4"/><ref name="mlit.go.jp3">Template:Cite report</ref><ref name="ASN JAL115">Template:Cite web</ref> The aircraft had flown for 8,830 hours at the time.<ref name="mlit.go.jp4">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp

Crew

At the time of the accident, the aircraft was on the fifth of its six planned flights of the day.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/> The flight had 15 crew members, consisting of 3 cockpit crew and 12 cabin crew.

The cockpit crew consisted of:

• Captain Template:Nihongo, aged 49, served as a training instructor for First Officer Yutaka Sasaki on the flight, supervising him while handling the radio communications,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LastMinutes1">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 Template:Nihongo, age 39, was undergoing training for promotion to captain, and flew Flight 123 as one of his final training/evaluation flights, acting as captain.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp He had logged about 3,963 flight hours, including about 2,665 hours in 747s.
• Flight Engineer Template:Nihongo, age 46, was a veteran flight engineer having logged about 9,831 flight hours, including about 3,846 hours in 747s.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>

In 1987, when the investigation concluded, all three cockpit crew members were posthumously awarded the Polaris Award. Template:-

Passengers

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Survivors	Total
Japan	487Template:Fact	15	4	502
China	1	0	0	1
Germany	2	0	0	2
Hong Kong	4	0	0	4
India	3	0	0	3
Italy	2	0	0	2
South Korea	3	0	0	3
United Kingdom	1	0	0	1
United States	6	0	0	6
Total	509	15	4	524

The flight was during the Obon holiday period when many Japanese people make trips to their hometowns or to resorts.<ref name=nyt/> Twenty-two non-Japanese were on board the flight,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> including four residents of Hong Kong, two from Italy and six from the United States, and one each from West Germany and the United Kingdom.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Some ostensible foreigners had dual nationality, and some of them were residents of Japan.<ref name=nyt>Template:Cite news</ref>

Japanese singer and actor Kyu Sakamoto, who died in the crash

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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp They were Yumi Ochiai, a Japan Air Lines off-duty flight attendant; Hiroko and Mikiko Yoshizaki, a mother and her 8-year-old daughter, who both lost their loved ones in the crash; and Keiko Kawakami, a 12-year-old girl who also lost her parents and sister in the crash.<ref name="Survivors"/> Among the victims were Japanese singer and actor Kyu Sakamoto, and banker Akihisa Yukawa, the father-to-be of violinist and composer Diana Yukawa, born a month after the accident.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Guardian2002>Template:Cite news</ref>

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 instead. These include Sanma Akashiya, Masataka Itsumi and his family, Johnny Kitagawa, and the then cast of Shōten.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="chunichi">Template:Cite news</ref> Some members of the Shonentai were also scheduled to travel with Kitagawa but had stayed in Tokyo.<ref name="chunichi"/>

Sequence of events

Take-off and decompression

Route of Japan Air Lines Flight 123

Vertical stabilizer decompression and separation sequence (in Japanese)

The aircraft landed as JL366 at Haneda Airport in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, from Fukuoka Airport at 5:12Template:Spacesp.m. After almost an hour on the ground, Flight 123 pushed back from gate 18 at 6:04Template:Spacesp.m. and took off from Runway 15L at 6:12Template:Spacesp.m., 12 minutes behind schedule.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp<ref name="LastMinutes1" /> Twelve minutes after takeoff, at 6:24Template:Spacesp.m., at near cruising altitude over Sagami Bay Template:Convert east of Higashiizu, Shizuoka, the aircraft underwent explosive decompression,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp  bringing down the ceiling around the rear lavatories, damaging the unpressurised fuselage aft of the plane, unseating the vertical stabilizer, and severing all four hydraulic lines. A photograph taken from the ground shows the vertical stabilizer missing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The pilots set their transponder to broadcast a distress signal. Captain Takahama contacted Tokyo Area Control Center to declare an emergency and request a return to Haneda Airport, descending and following emergency landing vectors to Oshima. Tokyo Control approved a right-hand turn to a heading of 090° back toward Oshima, and the aircraft entered an initial right-hand bank of 040°, several degrees greater than observed previously. Captain Takahama ordered First Officer Sasaki to reduce the bank angle,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp  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 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

6:27–6:34 p.m.

Heading over the Izu Peninsula at 6:26Template:Spacesp.m., the aircraft turned away from the Pacific Ocean and back toward the shore,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp  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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp  Tokyo Control contacted the aircraft again and repeated the direction to descend and turn to a 090° heading to Oshima. Only then did the captain report that the aircraft had become uncontrollable. (Tokyo: "Japan Air 123 [sic] fly heading 090 radar vector to Oshima." JAL123: "But now uncontrol." Tokyo: "Uncontrol, roger understood.")<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 

The aircraft traversed Suruga Bay and passed over Yaizu, Shizuoka, at 6:31:02Template:Spacesp.m.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp Tokyo Control asked if they could descend, and Captain Takahama replied that they were now descending, stating that their altitude was Template:Convert. Captain Takahama declined Tokyo Control's suggestion to divert to Nagoya Airport Template:Convert away, instead preferring to land at Haneda,  which had the facilities to handle the 747.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The flight data recorder shows that the flight did not descend, but was rising and falling uncontrollably.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp  With the total loss of hydraulic control and non-functional control surfaces, the aircraft entered phugoid 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, simultaneously yawing right and banking 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.<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2"/>

Diagram of the damage to the vertical stabilizer on the left side

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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The pilots also began efforts to establish control using differential engine thrust,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp as the aircraft slowly wandered back toward Haneda. Their efforts had limited success. The unpressurised aircraft rose and fell in an altitude range of Template:Convert for 18 minutes, from the moment of decompression until around 6:40Template:Spacesp.m., with the pilots seemingly unable to figure out how to descend without flight controls.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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 [the] CVR record[ing]."<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

6:34–6:48 p.m.: Limited control

Parts of the vertical tail fin being recovered from the sea

At 6:35Template:Spacesp.m. the flight engineer responded for the first time to multiple calls from Japan Air Tokyo via the SELCAL (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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

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), Template:Nowrap of Dutch roll mode by use of the differential thrust between the right and left engines is estimated practically impossible for a pilot."<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp Shortly after 6:40Template:Spacesp.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.<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2"/>

Shortly after lowering the gear, the flight engineer asked if the speed brakes should be used, but the pilots did not acknowledge the request.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The aircraft then began a right-hand descending 420° turn from a heading of 040° at 6:40Template:Spacesp.m. to a heading of 100° at 6:45Template:Spacesp.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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The aircraft also began descending from Template:Convert to Template:Convert, as the pilots had reduced engine thrust to near idle from 6:43 to 6:48Template:Spacesp.m. Upon descending to Template:Convert at 6:45:46Template:Spacesp.m., the pilots again reported an uncontrollable aircraft.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The pilots also appeared to be understanding how grave their situation had become, with Captain Takahama exclaiming, "This may be hopeless" at 6:46:33Template:Spacesp.m.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp At 6:47Template:Spacesp.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 6:50 p.m.—approximately six minutes before the aircraft crashed —a photographer on the ground in Okutama captured a photograph of the 747, which showed that the vertical stabiliser was missing.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

6:48–6:55 p.m.: Final loss of control

Reconstruction of the left side of the fuselage

As the aircraft continued west, it descended below Template:Convert 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 6:48Template:Spacesp.m., before being reduced back to near idle; then at 6:49Template:Spacesp.m., it was ordered raised again.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp This greatly excited the phugoid motion,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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 Template:Convert at 6:49:30Template:Spacesp.m.,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp briefly stalling at Template:Convert. The captain immediately ordered maximum power at 6:49:40Template:Spacesp.m. as the stick shaker sounded.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The aircraft's airspeed increased as it was brought into an unsteady climb. Possibly in order to prevent another stall, at 6:51Template:Spacesp.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 6:52:39Template:Spacesp.m.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2"/> From 6:49:03 to 6:52:11Template:Spacesp.m., Japan Air Tokyo attempted to call the aircraft again via the SELCAL radio system. During the entire period, the SELCAL alarm continued to ring,<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp to which the pilots did not react.

The aircraft reached Template:Convert at 6:53Template:Spacesp.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 6:54Template:Spacesp.m., was reported to the flight as Template:Convert northwest of Haneda, and Template:Convert west of Kumagaya. At 6:55Template:Spacesp.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 6:54:30Template:Spacesp.m. and had reached 20 units 1 minute and 2 seconds later.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

One minute later, the flaps were extended to about 25 units, the bank angle exceeded 60°, and the nose began to drop.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp Captain Takahama immediately ordered the flaps to be retracted<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp and power was added abruptly, but still with higher power settings on the left engines than on the right.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp The asymmetric thrust settings continued to increase as the bank angle continued and exceeded 80°.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp 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 sounded.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

In the final moments, as the airspeed exceeded Template:Convert, 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

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" Template:Convert west-northwest of the previous ridge at an elevation of Template:Convert. It is speculated that this impact separated the outer third of the right wing, and two engines, which were "dispersed Template:Convert ahead".<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp After this impact, the aircraft flipped on its back, struck another ridge Template:Convert northwest from the second ridge, near Mount Takamagahara, and exploded.

The impact registered on a seismometer located in the Shin-Etsu Earthquake Observatory at Tokyo University from 6:56:27Template:Spacesp.m. as a small shock, to 6:56:32Template:Spacesp.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 6:56:30Template:Spacesp.m.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp Thus, 32 minutes had elapsed from the bulkhead failure to the crash.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp<ref name="Survivors">Template:Cite news</ref>

Crash site

The aircraft crashed at an elevation of Template:Convert in Sector 76, State Forest, 3577 Aza Hontani, Ouaza Narahara, Ueno Village, Tano District, Gunma Prefecture. The east–west ridge is about Template:Convert north-northwest of Mount Mikuni.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/> Ed Magnuson of Time magazine said that the area where the aircraft crashed was referred to as the "Tibet" of Gunma Prefecture.<ref name="LastMinutes1"/>

• 
  Wreckage at the crash site
• 
  Rescuers at the crash site

Delayed rescue operation

A United States Air Force navigator stationed at Yokota Air Base 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 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 helicopter was dispatched.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An article in the Pacific Stars and Stripes from 1985 stated that personnel at Yokota were on standby to help with rescue operations, but were never called by the Japanese government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A JSDF 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, Template:Convert 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, exposure to low temperatures overnight in the mountains, or injuries that, if tended to earlier, would not have been fatal.<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2"/> One doctor said, "If the discovery had come 10 hours earlier, we could have found more survivors."<ref name="LastMinutes1" />

One of the four survivors, off-duty Japan Air Lines flight purser Template:Nihongo 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.<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2"/>

Investigation

Correct (top) and incorrect (bottom) splice plate installations

A diagram of the aft pressure bulkhead on Flight 123

Japan's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission published their final report on the accident on 19 June 1987. The official cause of the crash according to the investigation was:

1. 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.
2. 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 rivets.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Boeing repair technicians, however, had used two splice plates parallel to the stress crack.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="japantimes"/> 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/><ref name="japantimes">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

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.<ref name="mlit.go.jp3"/>Template:Rp

In 2025 it was reported that, according to Hideji Kenjo, an officer with the Gunma Prefectural Police who worked on the case, the identification and autopsies of the victims was conducted in a gymnasium that had been converted into a morgue for the purposes of the investigation, and that the process lasted over a month from the date of the crash.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Aftermath and legacy

Flight 123 accident monument in Fujioka

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 faults to cover up shortcomings in the airline's inspection procedures to protect the reputation of a major customer.<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2">Template:Cite book</ref> 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, JAL's main competitor, as a safer alternative.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Cenotaph of Flight 123

In the aftermath of the incident, JAL president Yasumoto Takagi resigned.<ref name="Air Disaster Volume 2"/> Hiroo Tominaga, a JAL maintenance manager, died from suicide intended to atone for the incident,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1989, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 serving United Airlines Flight 232 experienced a similar total loss of hydraulic pressure after suffering an uncontained engine failure while flying over the Midwestern United States. United Airlines check pilot Dennis Fitch, who was aboard Flight 232 as a passenger, had studied the case of Japan Airlines 123 and had practiced similar scenarios in a flight simulator. This experience enabled him to assist the flight crew in making a controlled crash landing at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, directly contributing to the survival of 184 of the 296 people on board.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Reference page

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 visited the site to remember the victims.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Families of the victims, together with local volunteer groups, hold an annual memorial gathering every August 12 near the crash site in Gunma Prefecture.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The crash led to the 2006 opening of the Safety Promotion Center,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which is located on the grounds of Haneda Airport.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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, 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Japan Airlines Flight 123 Memorial at Ueno, Gunma

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2024, the 39th anniversary day climb was joined by JAL's President and CEO Mitsuko Tottori, 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> 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 "Template:Nihongo"(translation: Osutaka Ridge) in Japan. The flight was also included in a Mayday season-six (2007) Science of Disaster special, entitled "Fatal Flaw",<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• It is featured in season 1, episode 2, of the TV show Why Planes Crash, 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 in the United Kingdom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The National Geographic Channel's documentary series Seconds from Disaster featured the accident in season six, episode six, titled "Terrified over Tokyo", released December 3, 2012.Template:Citation needed
• Seventeen (titled in Japanese as Climber's High), the best-selling novel by Hideo Yokoyama, revolves around the reporting of the crash at the fictional newspaper Kita-Kanto Shimbun. Yokoyama was a journalist at 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• In 2009, the film Shizumanu Taiyō, starring Ken Watanabe, 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but also bitterly criticised the film, saying that it "not only damages public trust in the company but [also] could lead to a loss of customers."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The movie features music by Diana Yukawa, 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• The 2004 album Reise, Reise by German Template:Lang band Rammstein is loosely inspired by the crash. The final moments of the cockpit voice recording are hidden in the pregap of the first track on some CD pressings of the album.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• In 2016 Machiko Taniguchi, widow to deceased passenger Masakatsu Taniguchi, partnered with illustrator Kazuhimo Teishima to self-publish a children's picture book titled My Papa's Persimmon Tree, inspired by her and her family's experience of the crash. The book was translated into English in 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft

Sources

• Template:Cite report
  • Template:Cite report
• Template:Cite report (Tailstrike incident report)
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Learning from the Past (Archive) Japan Air Lines
• Crash of Japan Air Lines B-747 at Mt. Osutaka
• JAL123 CVR (cockpit voice recorder) transcript
• "Christopher Hood's Research about JL123"
• Template:Usurped (Template:Usurped)
• The record of JAL123 (Japanese with English place names) (Archive)
• Template:YouTube
• Template:YouTube
• Template:YouTube (Archive)
• Template:YouTube
• Planesafe.org: JAL123 (Archive)
• The New York Times: J.A.L.'s Post-Crash Troubles
• Template:YouTube