Japan Air Lines Flight 350

Japan Air Lines Flight 350 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, registered JA8061, on a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, to Tokyo in Japan.<ref name="aviation-safety.net" /> The airplane crashed 9 February 1982 on approach to Haneda Airport in Tokyo Bay, resulting in 24 fatalities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Flight 350 was the first crash for Japan Air Lines in the 1980s.<ref name="JAL Timeline">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Crew

The crew consisted of 35-year-old Captain Seiji Katagiri (片桐 清二 Katagiri Seiji), 33-year-old First Officer Yoshifumi Ishikawa, and 48-year-old flight engineer Yoshimi Ozaki.<ref name="aviation-safety.net" /> The cause of the crash was traced to Katagiri's deliberate crashing of the plane.

Flight

File:JAL Flight 350 wreckage.png

Another angle of the aircraft involved

One report states that the captain engaged the inboard engines' thrust-reversers in flight.<ref name="Airdisaster" /><ref name="NYTimes14Feb1982">Stokes, Henry Scott. "Cockpit Fight Reported on Jet That Crashed in Tokyo," The New York Times. 14 February 1982. Retrieved 24 June 2011.</ref> Another report states that, during descent, Katagiri "cancelled autopilot, pushed his controls forward and retarded the throttles to idle."<ref name="aviation-safety.net">Aviation Safety Network, Accident description. Retrieved 4 April 2015.</ref> Ishikawa and Ozaki worked to restrain Katagiri and regain control.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite their efforts, the DC-8's descent could not be fully arrested 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.<ref name="aviation-safety.net" />

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.<ref name="Time story">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Katagiri was later found to have paranoid schizophrenia<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> prior to the incident, which resulted in his being ruled not guilty by reason of insanity.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Investigators for the Japanese government attributed the incident to a lack of proper medical examinations which allowed Katagiri to fly.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Aftermath

Katagiri has since been released from psychiatric care.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8 family
• List of declared or suspected pilot suicides
• Aviation safety
• Template:Section link
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• List of Japan Airlines incidents and accidents'
• Suicide by pilot

Specific incidents

• EgyptAir Flight 990
• Germanwings Flight 9525
• JetBlue Flight 191
• LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470
• Royal Air Maroc Flight 630
• SilkAir Flight 185

External links

• Final Accident Report – Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission Template:In lang