Families of the victims of the 1985 Japan Airlines jet crash on Monday marked the 39th anniversary of the world's deadliest single-aircraft accident that killed 520 passengers and crew, as the carrier is enhancing safety steps following a spate of recent incidents.
As in previous years, relatives of the victims climbed a steep mountain trail in the summer heat to pay their respects at the Boeing 747's crash site on Osutaka Ridge in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.
"I would like to pass on memories of the accident to the next generation by climbing" to the site on the anniversary, as many of the victims' family members are growing old, said Junya Kobayashi, who lost his uncle Hiroyuki Kato in the crash.
The 34-year-old climbed carrying a backpack of his grandfather, who died in 2002.
The transport ministry warned JAL earlier this year to improve its safety record after a number of incidents.
In May, one of its A350 jetliners made contact with the wing of another JAL plane on the apron at Tokyo's Haneda airport, though there were no injuries. In the same month, another JAL plane waiting to take off at f*ckuoka airport in southwestern Japan crossed the stop line without permission, causing a J-Air Corp plane to abort its take off.
Japan Airlines Co's new president, Mitsuko Tottori, has pledged to prioritize customer safety after a collision between a JAL plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda airport in January, in which five coast guard members were killed, but all 379 people aboard the burning JAL A350 jetliner were safely evacuated.
"I renewed my awareness that there should be no compromise in safety," Tottori told reporters on Monday while making her first anniversary day climb since taking up the company's top post in April.
On Aug 12, 1985, a packed JAL Flight 123 en route from Tokyo to Osaka crashed around 40 minutes after takeoff, leaving only four survivors among the 524 people aboard.
Many of the passengers were traveling to their hometowns during Japan's Bon summer holiday season.
In 1987, a Japanese government investigation commission concluded that the crash was caused by improper repairs by Boeing Co to the plane's rear pressure bulkhead, which ruptured, blowing off the aircraft's vertical stabilizer and destroying its hydraulic systems.
According to JAL, 230 people from 68 families climbed the Osutaka Ridge on Monday.
Kuniko Miyajima, a 77-year-old who leads an association of the victims' kin, said she hopes to fulfill her responsibility of ensuring the tragedy of the accident is remembered by the next generation.
Just as it did last year, KDDI Corp temporarily enhanced internet service in mountainous areas with typically poor mobile communication, enabling some climbers to make video calls to bereaved family members who could not go there due to their age.
© KYODO
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17 Comments
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satoshi matsuda
The cause has not been revealed. The voice recorder is not available, a strange! There are many consipracy theories and hoaxes.
-18(+4/-22)
Agent_Neo
One conspiracy theory is that it collided with a Self-Defense Force plane. Given the public sentiment at the time, the government believed the incident was a concern for the survival of the Self-Defense Forces, and so it was covered up.
Other theories include a collision with a US military plane, a hijacked plane causing a suicide bombing, or the plane being shot down. Many other theories are circulating.
-18(+2/-20)
earsay
The cause has not been revealed.
Absolute nonsense. The cause is well documented and easily located online.
24(+25/-1)
3RENSHO
The final paragraph of this article explains the cause of the crash...
13(+16/-3)
Corey
I think I heard that American military wanted to help rescue possible survivors in the mountainous area. But that their offer for help was rejected by Japan.
10(+13/-3)
Ah_so
This was also another example of how Japan is paralysed in the face of predictable events, like Kobe 1995 and f*ckushima 2011. The wreck last on the mountainside for over five hours before any emergency services arrived - no one knew whose responsibility it was, so they say on their hands. It is thought that they're nasty have been survivors at this time.
-7(+6/-13)
NCIS Reruns
Those people were killed due to slipshod repairs by Boeing engineers. And more recently history seems to be repeating itself.
9(+14/-5)
hooktrunk2
The cause has not been revealed. The voice recorder is not available, a strange! There are many consipracy theories and hoaxes.
@satoshi matsuda
This is pretty comprehensive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Flight_123
13(+13/-0)
miss_oikawa
The cause has not been revealed. The voice recorder is not available, a strange! There are many consipracy theories and hoaxes.
Err, have you heard of Google? Amazing new search engine based in San Francisco. Enables you to find out information.
12(+13/-1)
thelonius
Boeing alone cannot be blamed for this. The 747 was not designed for such short trips with so many takeoff and landing cycles. JAL ignored that.
1(+3/-2)
NCIS Reruns
The 747 was not designed for such short trips with so many takeoff and landing cycles. JAL ignored that.
I don't entirely disagree with your point, but JAL had 49 Jumbos in its fleet. Many of them, with smaller seats to maximize capacity, flew for decades on domestic routes and did not crash. It was only the one that was improperly repaired that went out of control and crashed.
7(+7/-0)
BRS
原因は、機体尾部修理不良と設計上の欠陥であり、特に機体修理中に使用されたリベットの留め方が不適切だったことが明らかとなった[3]。この事故がきっかけで安全啓発センターが設置されるなど、航空安全および事故対策強化を求める動きを引き起こした[4]。現在でも本事故は航空安全対策の重要な教訓とされている。
This from Wikipedia. Flawed design, flawed rivets used in repairs (sound familiar?) .
The 747 was not designed for such short trips with so many takeoff and landing cycles. JAL ignored that.
Is that dense? Or obtuse?
While on the subject:
This was also another example of how Japan is paralysed in the face of predictable events, like Kobe 1995 and f*ckushima 2011. The wreck last on the mountainside for over five hours before any emergency services arrived - no one knew whose responsibility it was, so they say on their hands. It is thought that they're nasty have been survivors at this time.
That is definitely thick.
0(+2/-2)
Peter Neil
thick as a brick.
2(+2/-0)
Gene Hennigh
It seems that the most important point of the article is that people haven't forgotten the crash. It says something quite positive that people haven't let the thing go without commemorating the people who died. Most countries forget about such things and commemorate shootings and assassinations, which are positive events, too, but remembering a relatively few people or just one as opposed to more than five hundred something unusual. The cause is something to think about, yes, but not as relevant as to what the article is about.
2(+2/-0)
Ah_so
A repost of the above with typos removed:
This was also another example of how Japan is paralysed in the face of predictable events, like Kobe 1995 and f*ckushima 2011. The wreck lay on the mountainside for over five hours before any emergency services arrived - no one knew whose responsibility it was, so they sat on their hands. It is thought that there may have been survivors at this time.
To quote from Wikipedia:
Medical staff later found bodies with injuries suggesting that people had survived the crash only to die from shock, exposure overnight in the mountains, or injuries that, if tended to earlier, would not have been fatal.
3(+3/-0)
GuruMick
Lots of "maybe, perhaps and if only ' comments.
If a large plane crashes in a mountainous area , chances of survival not good overall.
-2(+0/-2)
BRS
The cause has not been revealed. The voice recorder is not available, a strange! There are many consipracy (sic) theories and hoaxes.
Nope
One conspiracy theory is that it collided with a Self-Defense Force plane. Given the public sentiment at the time, the government believed the incident was a concern for the survival of the Self-Defense Forces, and so it was covered up.
Other theories include a collision with a US military plane, a hijacked plane causing a suicide bombing, or the plane being shot down. Many other theories are circulating
No doubt they are, feeble minds and the internet, but Nope
Fortunately for you, there's Google Translate:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%88%AA%E7%A9%BA123%E4%BE%BF%E5%A2%9C%E8%90%BD%E4%BA%8B%E6%95%85
0(+1/-1)
