Gavin Andrew David 6 Report post Posted August 12, 2005 20 years ago on 12th of august Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 of 524 on board in the world's worst single-aircraft aviation disaster. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Liau 0 Report post Posted August 12, 2005 http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1985/1985-35.htm The aircraft suffered an aft pressure bulkhead failure at 23,900 ft. The aircraft had severe control difficulties with loss of all controls and eventually after 40 minutes, collided with a mountain. Improper repair of the bulkhead while being supervised by Boeing engineers after a tail strike in 1978. Worst single plane disaster in aviation history. Kyu Sakamoto, 43, famous for his Japanese song "Sukiyaki" was killed in the accident. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denny Yen 0 Report post Posted August 12, 2005 I remember reading that rescuers found messages written on napkins, bits of papers strewn amongst the wreckage. These are the passengers' messages to loved ones. Clearly they know its a one-way ticket and their final moments before death. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Min Chun 0 Report post Posted August 12, 2005 http://mito.cool.ne.jp/detestation/123.html THIS ONE IS THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN PILOT OF JAL123 AND TOWER... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gavin Andrew David 6 Report post Posted August 12, 2005 they managed to stay up for an additional 30 mins after losing all hydraulics .not bad Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
H Azmal 0 Report post Posted August 12, 2005 they managed to stay up for an additional 30 mins after losing all hydraulics .not bad 5001[/snapback] That's skill. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hon Lin 0 Report post Posted August 13, 2005 skills or not, still that plane crashed who should be responsible? and i am so surprised, how can a B747 carries pax of well over 500? unless is fully customized as economic class all way through...but can a B747 carry that many pax?? B747 never fails to amaze me even with the arrival of A380 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
H Azmal 0 Report post Posted August 13, 2005 and i am so surprised, how can a B747 carries pax of well over 500? unless is fully customized as economic class all way through...but can a B747 carry that many pax?? Yes. The 747 in question is of the SR type designed specifically for Japanese market - short haul, frequent landings and takeoffs, high density. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Y. J. Foo 0 Report post Posted August 13, 2005 and i am so surprised, how can a B747 carries pax of well over 500? unless is fully customized as economic class all way through...but can a B747 carry that many pax?? 5031[/snapback] That particular 747 is unique in Japan: the plane, JA8119, was B747SR-46, which means the plane was specially tailored for Japanese sectors, ie with ultra-high density. According to Air Disaster, Vol.2 by Macarthur Job, they could seat up to 528 passengers!! Also, the plane crashed ude to improperly-repaired bulkhead as stated earlier, so obviously they could only blame those repairmen... Those crews had nothing left but the engine to manouevre the plane, so they could be regarded as skilled of course!! At one point they were even allgned with one of the runways in Haneda, but unfortunately it turned left to the mountain area, where most of them met their final fate... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denny Yen 0 Report post Posted August 14, 2005 Bulk-head issue in JAL is similar to China Airlines CI 611 mid-air break-up. The cause was traced to inadequate repairs following a tail-strike at Kai Tak several years ago. Read about it at Taiwan's ASIC website: http://www.asc.gov.tw/asc_en/accident_list...?accident_no=83 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rozhan 0 Report post Posted August 14, 2005 I remember one of the survivors was an off-duty stewardess. Terrible tragedy. I read in an article several years ago about insufficient use of rivets for the repairs after a tail strike. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
H Azmal 0 Report post Posted August 14, 2005 I remember reading in 'take off', they say an improperly closed bulkhead (holed after a tailstrike in 1978) caused the explosive loss of the tail. The tragic thing is the hole was just 1mm in diameter (IIRC). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S V Choong 4 Report post Posted August 15, 2005 Kyu Sakamoto, 43, famous for his Japanese song "Sukiyaki" was killed in the accident. Wow, is this how Sakamoto Kyu died? Just a side note, the song known in the west as "sukiyaki" does not have similar title as the original song in Japanese which is entitled "Ue wo muite arukou" (let's look up and walk). This song was a hit in the 60s when the stock market crashed in Japan. The song encouraged Japanese to put the past behind and look forward to a new start. Perhaps we need one song as such for post Asian Economic Crisis too "Sukiyaki" is a famous Japanese dish, the Americans took this as the name of the song when it is "translated" into English. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sing Yew 1 Report post Posted August 15, 2005 Wow, is this how Sakamoto Kyu died? Just a side note, the song known in the west as "sukiyaki" does not have similar title as the original song in Japanese which is entitled "Ue wo muite arukou" (let's look up and walk). This song was a hit in the 60s when the stock market crashed in Japan. The song encouraged Japanese to put the past behind and look forward to a new start. Perhaps we need one song as such for post Asian Economic Crisis too "Sukiyaki" is a famous Japanese dish, the Americans took this as the name of the song when it is "translated" into English. 5129[/snapback] Didn't know that, Sukiyaki isn't the original title of the song. So now my curiosity has been satisfied as to why, would someone name the song based on the name of a dish. Thanks for letting us know. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denny Yen 0 Report post Posted August 15, 2005 This is spooky... On May 25, the flight took off at 2:50 pm local time for the 1 hour 20 minutes flight to Hong Kong. About 20 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, suggesting the aircraft had experienced an in flight breakup at FL350, near the Penghu Islands at Taiwan Strait, killing all 19 crew members and 206 passengers. 190 of the deceased are Chinese from Taiwan, 14 Chinese from Hong Kong, 1 Singaporean, 9 Chinese from Mainland, and 1 Swede. 3 were infants. 114 were in a group tour organized by five travel agencies to Hong Kong or the Mainland. The plane was expected to arrive at 4:28 PM. The Pescadores Islands (Chinese: 澎湖群島; Wade-Giles: Peng-hu; Pinyin: Pénghú, from Portuguese, fishermen) are an archipelago in the Taiwan Strait. ... In this map of China, the light-coloured areas represent Mainland China, while yellow coloured area refers to Taiwan. ... At 5:05 P.M., a military C130 aircraft spotted a crashed airliner 20 nautical miles (37 km) northeast of Makung. Oil slicks were also spotted at 5:05 PM. The first body was found at 6:10 PM. Makung (馬公 Pinyin: Mǎgōng) is the county seat of Penghu, in Taiwan Province, Republic of China. ... B-18255, the Boeing 747-209B that had crashed on May 25, was 22 years old, and this was to have been its last flight before being sold to a small Thailand carrier for $US1.45 million. The Boeing 747, which is also known as the jumbo jet, is the second largest passenger airliner after the Airbus A380. ... Searchers recovered 162 bodies and 15 % of the wreckage, including part of the cockpit, and found no signs of burns, explosives or gunshots. There was no distress signal or communication sent out prior to the crash. Radar data suggests that the aircraft broke into four pieces while at FL350. This theory is supported by the fact that articles which would have been found inside the aircraft (magazines, etc.) were found up to 80 miles (129 km) from the crash site. The weather and climate were normal. The CVR showed that the pilot did not detect any anomaly and was humming the famous oldie tune "When Will You Be Back?" by Teresa Teng. In aircraft, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used to record aircraft and pilot behavior in order to analyze accidents, and are usually called black boxes by the news media. ... Teresa Teng (鄧麗君, pinyin: Dèng Lìjūn) (January 29, 1953 - May 8, 1995) was one of the most famous singers in Asia, from Taipei, Taiwan. ... The flight data recorder from Flight 611 shows that the plane began gaining altitude at a significantly faster rate in the 27 seconds before the plane broke apart, although the extra gain in altitude was well within the plane's design limits. The plane was supposed to be leveling off then as it approached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Shortly before the breakup, one of the aircraft's four engines began providing slightly less thrust. By coincidence, the same engine is the only one that has been recovered so far from the sea floor. The final investigation report found that the accident was the result of "metal fatigue" due to inadequate maintenance after a previous incident. The report finds that on February 7 1980, the accident aircraft suffered a tail strike occurrence in Hong Kong. The aircraft was then ferried back to Taiwan on the same day un-pressurized and a temporary repair was conducted the day after. A permanent repair was conducted on May 23 through 26, 1980. However, the permanent repair of the tail strike was not accomplished in accordance with the Boeing SRM, in that the area of damaged skin in Section 46 was not removed (trimmed) and the repair doubler did not extend sufficiently beyond the entire damaged area to restore the structural strength. Consequently, after repeating cycles of depressurization and pressurization during flights, the weakened hull started to crack gradually and finally broke open in flight on that flight, exactly 22 years after the faulty repair has been applied to the damaged tail. An explosive depressurization of the aircraft occurred once the crack was broken, causing the complete disintegration of the aircraft mid-air. In materials science, fatigue is a process by which a material is weakened by cyclic loading. ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Y. J. Foo 0 Report post Posted August 15, 2005 "When Will You Be Back?" by Teresa Teng. 何日君再来 Well I think there's something even spooky...like that 我等着你回来 by Bai Guang (白光)... In fact I think in her graveyard in Nilai IIRC there's a device that'll play this song by triggering a switch. Imagine triggering this in midnight... OK let's go back to topic... The bulkhead of JA8119 only had one row of rivets in lieu of two as required. The result was a 70% weaker repair and a crash that took 520 lives... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S V Choong 4 Report post Posted August 15, 2005 何日君再来 Well I think there's something even spooky...like that 我等着你回来 by Bai Guang (白光)... That will be really freaky.... I had the same idea as you when they mentioned 何日君再来, I tended to relate the song 我等着你回来. Funny that Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Izanee 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2005 man...i was sweating away while listening to the pilots....i felt so sorry for them...imagine the terror they must have been facing... apparently the 4 that survived sat in the back row... i think travelling by Y class is not such a bad thing after all! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Izanee 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2005 sorry...forgot to add something.... the israelis managed to airlift 1000 people on a stripped down B747 during the evacuation of jews from ethiopia in 1984....look up operation solomon online... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naim 6 Report post Posted August 13, 2013 I wonder where this spot is? "Since 2006, JAL has been displaying messages written by passengers and a cabin attendant before they died, at its Safety Promotion Center at Haneda Airport." === 28th anniversary of JAL jumbo jet crash marked NATIONAL AUG. 13, 2013 - 07:05AM JST ( 4 ) GUNMA — Relatives of victims of the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet on Monday marked the 28th anniversary of the accident in Gunma Prefecture. On Monday morning, around 300 relatives of some of the 520 people who died and JAL officials climbed up to Osutaka Ridge to visit the site of the crash and offered prayers at a cenotaph. At 6:56 p.m.—the exact time of the crash—a ceremony was held in Ueno village at the foot of the mountain, NTV reported. JAL Flight 123, with 524 people aboard, took off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at 6:12 p.m. on Aug 12, 1985. Twelve minutes into the flight, a bulkhead is believed to have blown in the tail, creating over-pressurization that severed the four sets of hydraulic-control lines and blew part of the tail section off. With a total loss of hydraulic pressure, the captain attempted unsuccessfully to regain control of the aircraft as it descended uncontrollably in a flight condition known as the “Dutch roll.” At 6:56 p.m., the plane crashed into the mountain. Only four survivors were found when the first rescue workers arrived 12 hours later. Since 2006, JAL has been displaying messages written by passengers and a cabin attendant before they died, at its Safety Promotion Center at Haneda Airport. Japan Today http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/28th-anniversary-of-jal-jumbo-jet-crash-marked Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tamizi Hj Tamby 1 Report post Posted August 13, 2013 28 years have passed; and to this day,the JL123 is the 2nd deadliest air crash after the Tenerife incident. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2 Report post Posted August 13, 2013 I wonder where this spot is? "Since 2006, JAL has been displaying messages written by passengers and a cabin attendant before they died, at its Safety Promotion Center at Haneda Airport." It's located at Airport Facilities Co., Ltd. No.2 Building 1-7-1 Haneda Airport, Ota-ku, Tokyo 144-0041 Japan - a 5 minute walk from the Tokyo Monorail station. But it's closing October 1st since the facility is going to be relocated to a building even closer to the station from October 1. http://www.jal.com/en/flight/safety/center/visit.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naim 6 Report post Posted August 13, 2013 So the new site should be more accessible? Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alberttky 0 Report post Posted August 13, 2013 With a total loss of hydraulic pressure, the captain attempted unsuccessfully to regain control of the aircraft as it descended uncontrollably in a flight condition known as the “Dutch roll.” As I understand it the aircraft went into a phugoid cycle rather than a Dutch roll... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
