524 Killed - The worst single Aircraft disaster in aviation history Boeng 747 Crashes into a mountain North West of Tokyo' Japan Airlines Flight 123 (日本航空123便墜落事故 Nihonkōkū 123 Bin Tsuirakujiko?) was a scheduled domestic Japan Airlines passenger flight from Haneda Airport (Tokyo International Airport) to Osaka International Airport, Japan. On Monday, August 12, 1985, a Boeing 747SR operating this route suffered mechanical failures 12 minutes into the flight and, 32 minutes later, crashed into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Tokyo. The crash site was on Osutaka Ridge (御巣鷹の尾根 Osutaka-no-One?), near Mount Osutaka. All 15 crew members and 505 of the 509 passengers on board died, resulting in a total of 520 deaths and 4 survivors. It is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history, the deadliest aviation accident to occur on Japanese soil, and the second-deadliest accidental plane crash, behind the Tenerife airport disaster. The fatalities added to August 1985 being commercial aviation's single deadliest month for passengers plus crew, part of the single deadliest such year. The official cause of the crash according to the report published by Japan's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission is as follows: The aircraft was involved in a tailstrike incident at Osaka International Airport seven years earlier as JAL115, which damaged the aircraft's rear pressure bulkhead. The subsequent repair of the bulkhead did not conform to Boeing's approved repair methods. The Boeing technicians fixing the aircraft used two separate doubler plates, one with two rows of rivets and one with only one row when the procedure called for one continuous doubler plate with three rows of rivets to reinforce the damaged bulkhead.[20] The incorrect repair reduced the part's resistance to metal fatigue by 70%. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the one "doubler plate" which was specified for the job (the Federal Aviation Administration calls it a "splice plate" - essentially a patch) was cut into two pieces parallel to the stress crack it was intended to reinforce, "to make it fit".[21] This negated the effectiveness of two of the rows of rivets. During the investigation, Boeing calculated that this incorrect installation would fail after approximately 10,000 pressurizations; the aircraft accomplished 12,318 successful flights from the time that the faulty repair was made to when the crash happened. When the bulkhead gave way, the resulting explosive decompression ruptured the lines of all four hydraulic systems and blew off the vertical stabilizer. With the aircraft's flight controls disabled, the aircraft became uncontrollable. The Japanese public's confidence in Japan Airlines 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 fault to cover up shortcomings in the airline's inspection procedures, thus protecting the reputation of a major customer. In the months after the crash, domestic traffic decreased by as much as 25%. In 1986, for the first time in a decade, fewer passengers boarded JAL's overseas flights during New Years than the previous year. Some of them considered switching to All Nippon Airways as a safer alternative. Without admitting liability, JAL paid ¥780 million (7.6 million USD) to the victims' relatives in the form of "condolence money". Its president, Yasumoto Takagi (高木 養根 Takagi Yasumoto), resigned, while a maintenance manager working for the company at Haneda killed himself to apologize for the accident. In 2009, stairs with a handrail were installed to facilitate visitors' access to the crash site. Japan Transport Minister Seiji Maehara visited the site on August 12, 2010 to pray for the victims. In 2011, British academic Christopher Hood published a book, titled Dealing with Disaster in Japan: Responses to the Flight JL123 Crash, on the crash and its effect on Japanese society. Japan Airlines retired flight number 123 after the accident since 1 September 1985. The flight designation for the Tokyo-Osaka route is now 127, using a Boeing 777-200 instead of a Boeing 747. Families of the victims, together with local volunteer groups, hold an annual memorial gathering every August 12 near the crash site in Gunma Prefecture. The crash also led to the 2006 opening of the Safety Promotion Center. It is located in the Daini Sogo Building on the grounds of Tokyo International Airport. This center was created for training purposes to alert employees of the importance of airline safety and their personal responsibility to ensure safety.

• published: 15 Apr 2014
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