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>Template:Cite web</ref> Flight 350 was the first crash for Japan Air Lines in the 1980s.<ref name="JAL Timeline">Template:Cite 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>Template:Cite 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

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>Template:Cite 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