Mayday 2025 | The Worst Single Aircraft Disaster In History | Japan Airline Flight 123, Out Of Control, Mayday Air Disaster, National Geographic Documentary, Mayday 2025: Air Crash Investigation
#mayday #air_crash #mid_air_collision #lose_power #american_airline #explore #trend #fyp
Mayday: Air Disaster is a dramatic non-fiction series that investigates high-profile air disasters to uncover how and why they happened. Mayday: Air Disaster follows survivors, family members of crash victims and transportation safety investigators as they piece together the evidence of the causes of major accidents. So climb into the cockpit for an experience you won't soon forget.
#mayday
#air_disaster
#airline
#crash_on_maoten
#plane_crashs
#maday_episodes
#air_crash_investigation
#mayday #air_crash #mid_air_collision #lose_power #american_airline #explore #trend #fyp
Mayday: Air Disaster is a dramatic non-fiction series that investigates high-profile air disasters to uncover how and why they happened. Mayday: Air Disaster follows survivors, family members of crash victims and transportation safety investigators as they piece together the evidence of the causes of major accidents. So climb into the cockpit for an experience you won't soon forget.
#mayday
#air_disaster
#airline
#crash_on_maoten
#plane_crashs
#maday_episodes
#air_crash_investigation
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NewsTranscript
00:00This may be the last video ever taken of Japan Airlines Flight 123.
00:13It's late summer, and millions are travelling home for a traditional Japanese holiday.
00:22Something exploded.
00:23The plane is only 12 minutes into its flight when terror strikes.
00:39It's out of control, plunging up and down hundreds of meters at a time.
00:45And it's headed straight into the mountains that surround Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan.
00:51On the ground, Japan Airlines staff search frantically for the cause of the problem.
00:57In Tokyo, air traffic controllers try to guide the plane to safety, while the pilots resort to desperate measures to keep the plane aloft.
01:05Tokyo, Japan. August the 12th, 1985.
01:16In most of Japan, it's the eve of Obon, when people traditionally honour their ancestors, often returning to their place of birth for family reunions.
01:24Tokyo's Haneda Airport is crowded, with thousands trying to get home.
01:35On the tarmac, jumbo jets are lining up.
01:38Air travel is so popular here that Japan Airlines has to use 747s even for its short internal flights.
01:44Tokyo Area Control handles all aircraft over central Japan, including those on their way to and from the city's two big airports, Haneda and Narita.
01:58It's 6 o'clock in the evening, but the rush won't be over for hours.
02:02Crowded passenger lists and busy controllers make it a typical holiday weekend.
02:10Roger. Approved as you request.
02:13Cathay 456, turn right on the heading 250, climb and maintain flight level 240.
02:19At Haneda Airport, Japan Airlines Flight 123 is boarding.
02:33Among the passengers is young Yumi Ochiai.
02:36She's actually a flight attendant for Japan Airlines, but today she's off duty.
02:49Yumi takes a seat, four rows from the back of the plane.
02:57At 6.12 in the evening, Flight 123 takes off, heading for the industrial city of Osaka, 400 kilometres to the west.
03:07It's filled almost to capacity, 509 passengers and a crew of 15.
03:13Japan Air 123, contact Tokyo departure.
03:16Roger. Roger, Japan Air 123.
03:19Captain Masami Takahama is 49 years old and one of the airline's senior training captains.
03:26On this flight, he'll be handling the radio and keeping an eye on the first officer, who's sitting in the captain's seat.
03:32Yutaka Sasaki is flying the plane. He's hoping for promotion to captain.
03:38Hiroshi Fukuda, a veteran flight engineer, is the third man on the flight deck.
03:42Tokyo departure, Japan Air 123.
03:48Passing 8, 800.
03:51JAL 123's route will take it south over Enshu Bay, then southwest along the coast, until finally taking a sharp right turn to land in Osaka.
04:01The flight will take 54 minutes.
04:07Flight 123 is leaving Tokyo behind, climbing to 7,300 metres.
04:14Twelve minutes into this short flight, the plane's black box shows that all is going well.
04:18Hello, Pat. What's the problem?
04:21Someone wants to go to the restroom. Shall I let him?
04:25The plane's black box records a routine request from a passenger.
04:29He wants to use the bathroom before the seatbelt light is turned off.
04:32Careful, please.
04:33An ordinary request, on a routine day.
04:49Something exploded.
04:50Air is rushing out of the cabin. The oxygen masts drop down automatically when the air pressure falls.
05:03The explosion, the sudden loss of pressure in the cabin. There must be a hole in the aircraft.
05:16The pilot's first thought is that the landing gear doors have blown off.
05:27Squawk 7-7.
05:297-7-00 is the emergency code.
05:32When the crew radios this code to the ground, air traffic control will know the plane is in trouble.
05:37Every plane on the controller's screen carries a label, giving the plane's identity.
05:47Suddenly, the label beneath Flight 123 changes.
05:51Someone in the cockpit has keyed in the emergency signal.
05:54The plane's crew members are baffled. They know only that there's been a loud noise, some sort of explosion, a subsequent drop in cabin pressure, and a growing loss of control.
06:12Yet their instruments offer no clues to the mystery.
06:16Engines. All engines okay.
06:19Ominously, the pilots can't get the plane to respond.
06:23It's dropping!
06:25Right turn. Right turn.
06:27Hydraulic pressure. It's dropping!
06:29The plane's flight controls are powered by hydraulic pressure.
06:32The elevator, which makes the plane go up and down, the rudder, and ailerons which make it turn.
06:36On a big modern jet, all these are too heavy to operate with cables and levers.
06:42Instead, they're controlled by hydraulic fluid, which flows in pipes around the aircraft.
06:48It's the lifeblood of the plane.
06:51Tokyo. Japan Air 123. Request immediate.
06:55Trouble. Request return back to Haneda. Over.
06:59Roger. Approved as you request. Turn right to heading 090.
07:03Put the mask on secure, with the band around your head like this.
07:08Don't bang so much. Yes.
07:10Crew members, please, help out with the oxygen bottles.
07:14Prepare the oxygen bottles, please!
07:16Don't bang so much. Turn it back.
07:19It won't go back.
07:21Nothing seems to be working. All the controls are dead.
07:24They're 7,300 meters up in the air, traveling at nearly 540 kilometers an hour,
07:29and unable to control the plane.
07:33In the growing uncertainty of the situation, the pilots know they need to get down fast.
07:39The controller is puzzled.
07:42Instead of making the anticipated 180-degree turn back to the airport,
07:46the plane now veers off its course, but not towards Haneda.
07:49No. No. Ah, 123. Negative. Negative. Negative.
07:57Please confirm that you are decreeing emergency. That's right?
08:00That's affirmative.
08:02Request the nature of your emergency.
08:04Hydraulic pressure all lost!
08:06All lost.
08:07No. Look.
08:09All lost.
08:10Yes!
08:12The company, please, make a request to the company, please!
08:15Do you want to make a fuss?
08:17The crew seem paralyzed and don't radio the airline or answer the tower.
08:22The officials on the ground don't know that the plane has lost its hydraulic power,
08:27but their screens tell them it's flying erratically and is possibly out of control.
08:32Let's descend.
08:33Right turn, descend.
08:35Look at his altitude. Up and down, up and down.
08:38But now, Uncle Drew, put your hat into it or it'll stop!
08:43The hydraulics failure has caused a serious problem.
08:47For the last few minutes, the plane has begun flying in an alarming pattern.
08:52First, it climbs steeply, then tips over and goes into a terrifying dive of 1,200 meters,
08:59only to level off and begin to climb again.
09:02This repeats itself over and over again.
09:04The pilots cannot understand this bizarre behavior, and they are powerless to stop it.
09:22Tokyo Area Control, August the 12th, 1985.
09:26The controller receives an emergency signal from a jumbo jet that left Haneda Airport 13 minutes ago.
09:34Tokyo, Japan Air, one, two, three. Request immediate.
09:37Trouble. Request return back to Haneda. Mover.
09:42In the cabin, confusion and panic spread like wildfire.
09:47There's been an explosion, and now some passengers are gasping for air.
09:51The plane's precious hydraulic fluid is gone. That's why the flight controls aren't working properly.
10:02Don't bang so much. Turn it back.
10:05It won't go back.
10:07Airline personnel are trained to take charge in a crisis, and passenger Yumi Ochiai helps out even though off-duty.
10:13I want your children!
10:14At Tokyo Control, the controller is now joined by his supervisor.
10:20JAL 123. He's declared an emergency.
10:23Says it's uncontrollable.
10:24He says he wants to go back to Haneda, but his heading is all wrong. He can't seem to turn.
10:29Get him to Nagoya. That'll be the easiest. It's a straight line.
10:32The best solution would be for the plane to switch course to Nagoya Airport, which is 128 kilometers straight ahead.
10:43But they'd need to start descending immediately if they're going to land there.
10:52Right. Your position, 72. 72 miles to Nagoya. Can you land at Nagoya?
10:58Negative. Request back to Haneda.
11:00It's a longer runway.
11:06The captain wants to try to get back to Haneda.
11:09It's a large airport and ideally suited for a jumbo 747 in an emergency.
11:15But it's in the opposite direction.
11:18If he can get it down.
11:20Ah, 123. Can you descend?
11:23Roger. Now descending.
11:24But the black box shows that he doesn't descend.
11:27Without control of the aircraft, they can't.
11:30In the thin atmosphere at this altitude, the passengers are finding it difficult to breathe.
11:37People without oxygen masks may soon become unconscious.
11:41The situation worsens as some of the masks at the back of the plane run out of oxygen.
11:47It's been five minutes since the explosion, and a flight attendant is finally able to call the cockpit with news about what's happened to the plane.
11:59The flight attendant tells the engineer that the explosion has occurred in the rear of the plane, and may have come from the baggage compartment.
12:15So...
12:16It's a baggage compartment, not further to the rear.
12:20Listen, right now the baggage compartment right at the back has collapsed. I think we better descend.
12:24They need to get down quickly before the passengers become unconscious.
12:28But the captain seems to be struck by a strange paralysis.
12:31All the passengers are using their masks.
12:34Shall we descend a little?
12:37The captain does not reply.
12:40It's possible that by now he and his crew are suffering from hypoxia, or lack of oxygen to the brain.
12:45The R5 pet?
12:48At this altitude, the oxygen in their blood starts to fall.
12:52First, their judgement may become impaired.
12:56Eventually, they may lose consciousness.
12:58The R5 pet?
13:00Yes, I understand.
13:02Captain, the R5 master, stop!
13:06At the R5 door, the situation is becoming critical.
13:11The oxygen supply has failed.
13:13The cabin crew have to give the passengers whiffs of oxygen from a gas bottle.
13:24Still, the captain and his crew seem to be drowning in confusion.
13:29I think we better make an emergency descent.
13:32Yes.
13:34Shall we use our mask too?
13:36We better.
13:38I think we better use the oxygen mask.
13:40Yes.
13:41But they don't put on their masks.
13:43No one knows why.
13:45It might be indecision or hypoxia beginning to cloud their judgement.
13:53At Japan Airlines in Tokyo, flight operations have been alerted to the emergency, but are as mystified as everyone else on the ground.
14:00All they know is that over 500 lives are at stake.
14:05It's their job to try to diagnose the problem and come up with a solution while the plane is in the air.
14:10This is Japan Air Tokyo.
14:13Tokyo Control said they received an emergency call from you.
14:16Listen, right now the R5 door has broken.
14:20Roger, is the captain returning to Tokyo?
14:24What?
14:26Can you return to Haneda?
14:27Just a moment, we are making an emergency descent.
14:31We'll contact you again in a little while.
14:33Keep monitoring us, please.
14:35Roger.
14:38R5 door.
14:39Could it have come off?
14:41If the door has come off, that could mean an explosive decompression of the cabin as the air rushes out.
14:46Passengers may have been sucked out kilometres above the ground.
14:51But there's a worse possibility.
14:53If the door hit the tail of the aircraft, it could have damaged it.
14:57The tail keeps the plane stable.
14:59Its rudder and elevators make the plane go up and down, or side to side.
15:04If the tail is damaged, flight operations will be powerless to assist them.
15:08In Tokyo, news that a Japan Airlines jumbo jet is in trouble has leaked almost immediately.
15:19Japanese television is already breaking into regular programming with live interviews.
15:24Someone saw the crippled jet fly overhead.
15:27I knew the plane was in trouble.
15:29He is saying it was swaying back and forth.
15:32Then it disappeared in a cloud.
15:33Flight 123's meandering route has put it in range of an American air force base at Yokota on the northern outskirts of Tokyo.
15:44An American controller there has overheard the conversations between the plane and Tokyo air traffic control.
15:53He wants to help to offer Yokota runway for landing.
15:56Japan Air 123, Japan Air 123, Yokota approach. If you hear me, contact Yokota.
16:06The pilots are preoccupied and don't respond.
16:10Since they've lost all normal control of the plane, they're now testing the throttles to see what happens.
16:16They can make the plane go faster or slower. At least they have speed at their command.
16:21As they experiment, they find that if they push the throttles forward when the plane is diving, making the engines go faster, it actually makes the plane come out of the dive and brings the nose up.
16:36And if they pull back the throttles when it's climbing, slowing the engines, the nose tips and begins to dive.
16:42These actions are the opposite of what a pilot would normally do, but it seems to work and they begin to flatten out the mad roller coaster ride.
16:52Then a second experiment. By applying more thrust to the engines on the left side of the aircraft, they manage to slowly turn the plane right in the general direction of Tokyo.
17:03But then their luck runs out. In the frantic juggling of throttles, the pilots get out of step. It drives the 747 into a frenzy.
17:14Both hands.
17:16How about gear down? Gear down!
17:19Should we put the gear down?
17:21Lowering the landing gear should slow the plane down and make it more stable.
17:25Doesn't work.
17:26Should I lower the alternate?
17:27For safety, 747s employ an electrically run system, separate from the hydraulics, that can lower the landing gear in an emergency.
17:40While the engines are turning, they still have electric power.
17:44Lowering the landing gear helps stabilize the plane. The drag of the undercarriage has a dampening effect on the pitching motion.
17:52Right.
17:53But it also destroys the directional control they were getting by applying more power to one side of the aircraft.
17:59Max power!
18:01Close to Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, the plane makes an abrupt turn to the right and begins a terrifying dive.
18:13The plane is falling at 900 meters a minute, twice the normal rate of descent.
18:18We're going down! It's heavy!
18:24Put the wheel away!
18:25All the way!
18:26It's all the way!
18:27It's not heavy!
18:28Get the gear down!
18:30Get us down!
18:32There is no need for a belt!
18:35The plane's black box records the flight attendant still trying to calm the passengers.
18:43And air! One, two, three! Uncontrollable!
18:45He's going to hit the mountain.
18:47Tokyo control! Tokyo control!
18:49The data, sir, this is...
18:51All station, all station except the Japan Air 123. Keep silent until further advised.
18:57Uncontrollable!
18:58Understood.
19:00Do you wish to contact...
19:01Stay with us, please!
19:04Stay with us!
19:05Just as suddenly, the plane comes out of its dive. They've dropped over 3,000 meters. They're now in amongst towering mountains. But at least there's more oxygen at this altitude. The pilots have been fighting the plane for an intense 22 minutes since the explosion.
19:23This may be hopeless! The hydraulic fluid is all gone! It's uncontrollable!
19:28Нет, man!
19:32Нет!
19:34No, нет!
19:35Нет!
19:36Нет!
19:37Нет, нет!
19:38I'm gonna hit the mountain!
19:39Applying maximum power in order to lift the nose is their only option.
19:44Нет!
19:46Нет!
19:47Нет!
19:48Нет!
19:49Нет!
19:50Keep trying!
19:54In their efforts to control the plane,
19:56they've allowed the speed to drop too much.
19:58To escape the mountain, they need maximum power
20:01to generate more speed and more lift.
20:04Getting speed!
20:06Stick with it!
20:08Stick with it!
20:10It's first on the way!
20:12With the altitude!
20:14Don't lower the load!
20:16It's lowering!
20:18Going down!
20:22The passengers grasp the seriousness of the situation.
20:26Many of them prepare for the end.
20:29But increasing power to avoid the mountains
20:31has caused the plane to resume its wayward up-and-down motions.
20:38Having run out of options,
20:39the crew is forced to repeat the same futile procedures
20:42over and over.
20:44They've been fighting the plane for nearly 30 minutes,
20:47now.
20:49Japan Air 123, Japan Air 123, Yokota...
20:53The air traffic controllers, Japanese and American,
20:55are desperate to help,
20:57to give Flight 123 any information or reassurance they can.
21:01Request a radar vector to Haneda.
21:04Roger, understood. Keep heading 090.
21:07But frustratingly, the plane continues heading off to the northwest,
21:12away from both Haneda Airport and Yokota Air Base.
21:16Now, with every rise and fall of the plane,
21:19they're barely above the mountaintops.
21:21Can you control the aircraft now?
21:23An ominous silence descends on area control.
21:29Japan Air 123, switch your radio frequency to 119.7.
21:35119.7, please.
21:39They try changing radio frequency.
21:43If you can, change the frequency to 119.7.
21:51There is no reply.
21:55There is no reply.
21:57If you read, come up on 119.7.
22:01We are all ready.
22:03A
22:11Japanese Air 123, yes.
22:13We have selected 119.7.
22:17The position is our number.
22:19Your number is...
22:21Five...
22:23Four, five miles southwest of Haneda.
22:26In the tensions at the moment,
22:27the controller is a bit confused
22:29and mistakes the plane's distance from Haneda.
22:32North-west of Haneda?
22:35How many miles?
22:37Yes, that is correct.
22:39On our radar, you're 55, 55 miles north-west.
22:44We are ready for your approach at any time.
22:46Yokota is also available for landing.
22:49Let us know your intentions. Over.
22:51At Haneda Airport, emergency services are being mobilized for the plane,
22:55wherever it can touch down.
22:58Yes, roger. They say we're 25 miles west of Kumagaya.
23:03Suddenly, the plane goes into a steep dive, the worst yet.
23:07Stop the flap! Power!
23:09Flip up! Flip up! Flip up!
23:11Power! Power!
23:13The plane is falling at 5,500 meters a minute.
23:16Freeze! No!
23:25Flip up! Flip up! Flip up!
23:28Hit them!
23:32Freeze the load!
23:34Raise the load!
23:51Pull up.
23:52Freeze the load!
23:53Japan Air 123, Japan Air 123, can you hear me?
24:04Japan Air 123, Japan Air 123, do you read?
24:08Japan Air 123.
24:10Japan Air 123.
24:12Japan Air 123 is gone.
24:23At Tokyo Control, they've lost contact with a Japan Airlines jumbo jet full of passengers.
24:34An American plane flying in the area has been listening in to the drama of Flight 123 and reports seeing flames in the mountains some hundred kilometers west of Tokyo.
24:44One of the C-130 pilots later said that they even guided a rescue helicopter to the scene.
24:55And American Marines stood by ready to rappel down to the burning wreckage.
25:00But before they could do so, they were ordered to return to base.
25:08Rivalry between the various Japanese emergency forces is reported to have caused confusion and delays.
25:14As the victims of the crash wait for help.
25:19During the night, the Japanese self-defense force arrives on the scene.
25:24A helicopter flown by Captain Isuzu Amori finds the crash site.
25:28The pilot radios in.
25:31Miniokayama, Victor 107.
25:34I see something.
25:35I see flames in about 10 spots over an area of about 300 meters square.
25:41Victor 107, Miniokayama.
25:44Is there any sign of survivors?
25:46Victor 107, no signs of survivors.
25:49Visibility poor.
25:51Too much smoke.
25:53Victor 107, can you land to investigate?
25:56Not a chance.
25:58It's a 45 degree slope down there.
26:00No more to put down.
26:02And there's fire everywhere.
26:03Seeing no sign of survivors and unwilling to risk a landing at night, Captain Amori returns to base.
26:19Meanwhile, a team of rescuers is on its way by road.
26:31But since they don't expect to find anyone alive, they spend the night in a village 68 kilometers from the crash site.
26:37At the crash site, the passengers of Flight 123 lie dying.
26:53The next morning, the last moments of Flight 123 start to become clear.
27:11The 747 sliced a path through the trees near the top of Mount Osutaka, one of the mountains north of Mount Fuji.
27:20The plane finally hit a ridge several hundred meters further on and exploded.
27:25The wreckage and passengers then tumbled down the steep side of the mountain.
27:35It's now 14 hours after the crash, and the Japanese Self-Defense Force Rescue Team arrives at the scene.
27:47They are confronted with the worst single aircraft accident in history.
27:55They're shocked to find a survivor.
28:11It's the off-duty flight attendant, Yumi Ochiayi, still hanging on to life.
28:25And she is not the only one.
28:30Rescuers find a 12-year-old girl wedged in the branches of a tree and airlift her to safety.
28:46Incredibly, two more passengers are alive.
28:48A young mother and her 8-year-old daughter.
28:52It's nothing short of a miracle.
28:55But how have these four survived?
29:01The human body is believed to be able to stand a forward deceleration of up to 25 times the force of gravity.
29:10But investigators report that from the speed at which the aircraft hit the ground,
29:15those at the front of the plane experienced a sudden stop of over 100 g's.
29:25The four survivors are hurried to a hospital in Fujioka City.
29:37Investigators will soon discover that all four of the surviving passengers were seated in the last seven rows.
29:43This is how they survived.
29:45In the back of the 747, the impact forces were much less.
29:51Sheer luck had protected them from the flying debris.
29:53Yumi Ochihae has a broken pelvis and a fractured arm.
30:00She tells a disturbing story of what happened as she lay on the mountain, awaiting rescue,
30:06and that many more passengers survived the crash.
30:08After the crash, I heard harsh, panting, and gasping noises from many people.
30:15I heard it coming from everywhere, all around me.
30:19There was a boy crying,
30:20Mother, I clearly heard a young woman saying,
30:24Come quickly.
30:25Suddenly, I heard a boy's voice.
30:28Okay, I'll hang on, he said.
30:30It sounded like the voice of a boy of about school age.
30:35In the darkness, I could hear the sound of a helicopter.
30:38I couldn't see any light, but I could hear the sound, and it was quite near too.
30:44We'll be saved, I thought, and waved flantically.
30:48But the helicopter went further away.
30:51Don't go!
30:52I waved disparately.
30:54Help!
30:54But it faded.
30:55I could no longer hear the voices of the boy or the young woman.
31:03It's clear now that many died in the cold night air, waiting for rescue.
31:12The crash of this jumbo jet would normally be a strictly Japanese affair.
31:16But it sets aviation alarm bells ringing around the world.
31:20Only weeks earlier, an Air India 747 had gone down in the Atlantic,
31:25killing 329 people.
31:28Now another 520 dead.
31:31Was there something wrong with the 747, the world's biggest jet?
31:36Could there be some unknown design fault?
31:39There were some 600 747s flying worldwide.
31:43A problem with the plane would have grave consequences for aviation.
31:46Ron Schleid, a top investigator with America's National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB, was assigned the case.
31:58So it was a very big concern on our part about whether there was a problem with the 747, an airworthiness problem.
32:06And so we had to jump on this very quickly to learn what happened.
32:11At the Washington headquarters of the NTSB, the chairman was extremely concerned at the potential consequences for world aviation.
32:18He wrote a personal note to his opposite number in Japan, begging him to invite the NTSB to join the investigation as guests.
32:27During the late 70s and 80s, Ron Schleid was involved with many of the major foreign investigations for the NTSB.
32:38He's familiar with the sensitivities of working with foreign governments, and heads to Tokyo, where he'll meet the rest of his team.
32:45Representatives from Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, and an engineer from America's Federal Aviation Administration.
32:51When I arrived in Tokyo, the atmosphere in Japan was extremely stressful.
32:58The news media were everywhere. There was a tremendous amount of anger.
33:05Once in Japan, Schleid found that the local Japanese police had taken over the investigation,
33:11and were treating it like a crime scene, diligently observing his team's every move.
33:16Everyone was considered suspicious. Japanese airline personnel, Boeing personnel, were considered suspicious.
33:28They weren't even allowed to go to the accident site.
33:33Schleid had to wait for two days before the Japanese authorities would allow him to visit the site.
33:38I was able to convince the Japanese to allow us to take Boeing people to the site,
33:46with the stipulation that the Boeing people stuck very close to us,
33:51and we supervised them while they were on scene.
33:54They could not operate on their own.
33:57Schleid found that to gain access to the site, the Japanese had quickly constructed helicopter landing pads.
34:03It was an amazing sight to look up at this mountain and see what looked like wreckage from an airplane at a distance,
34:16but you could not recognize any part of an airplane.
34:20There were scores of helicopters in the air, landing and taking off, every couple minutes.
34:25Amidst the wreckage of JAL-123, Schleid found that some families of the victims had managed to scramble to the remote mountain site on foot
34:44and build shrines to their loved ones.
34:49From above, flowers rained down on the investigators.
34:53I recall these big white, I believe they were Chinook helicopters, flying over,
34:59and there were families aboard the helicopters looking at the accident site.
35:03They were quite high, and they were dropping flower petals down onto the accident site.
35:12The one thing that we found when we got to the accident site
35:16was that many of the passengers had a lot of time to think about the end,
35:21and they found many, many notes written on pieces of paper,
35:26anything they could get their hands on.
35:29My darling wife, life with you has been wonderful.
35:34Our children have grown up to be people I am proud of.
35:37I never dreamed that the dinner we had last night would be our last together.
35:46Passengers were able to think and realize that they were out of control
35:49and maybe going to crash, so they wrote notes to their loved ones
35:53and left them in the back of the seats or in their pockets.
35:56But what could have caused this disaster?
36:11Neither the heart-rending letters nor the tangled wreckage
36:15yet yield any answer to what happened to Flight 123.
36:20Still, the main thing the investigators have to go on
36:22are the words on the plane's cockpit voice recorder,
36:25those of the plane's flight engineer who had said that door R5 was broken.
36:31They believe that the door has somehow come off in flight,
36:34crashed into the tail, and damaged the plane's flying surfaces,
36:38the horizontal stabilizer, which makes the plane go up and down,
36:42the rudder, which controls side-to-side movement.
36:44But then, a piece of news that destroys that theory totally.
36:53The door had not come off.
36:55It's found by the investigators amidst the wreckage.
37:00The flight engineer was wrong.
37:02The warning light on his panel led him to believe that the door had failed in flight.
37:13But the alarm may well have been set off by a short circuit in the electrical system,
37:17caused by the ceiling collapsing in the explosion.
37:19It was not a broken door that caused Flight 123 to crash.
37:27The investigators would have to look elsewhere.
37:29The gun, truck ofiteness, and priests, Heavy, represented by the perilousami Department of Terror,
37:41a dead니다 of a sea.
37:42The cemetery became the네요-자가-in-the-art system.
37:46It smells like a stormy Center-based operation.
37:49These levels were out with the perilous violence violence,
37:51behind the lanç, of the sea, of the military in the quickness of two times.
37:56Japan Airlines flight one two three has crashed into Mount Osutaka taking hundreds of lives
38:05investigators are worried about a hidden fault in the Boeing 747 they need to find the cause
38:12of this crash quickly a photograph taken by an amateur photographer provides the first clue
38:18to the mystery of why the plane became unfliable there's something odd about the image photographic
38:25technicians put it on a computer and work hard to enhance the photograph to sharpen up its blurred
38:31lines finally they get a clear enough picture the whole huge tail fin of the airplane is missing
38:39it's what keeps the plane steady since most of the planes hydraulic fluid lines pass through the
38:45fin it starts to make sense why they lost hydraulic pressure and control of the plane
38:53then a Japanese Navy ship steaming across the bay south of Tokyo came upon the plane's tail fin floating
39:02on the sea it's at the very spot where the plane had first reported an emergency
39:10investigators are now certain that the starting point of the accident must have something to do
39:15with the tail of the aircraft
39:23they review the known facts
39:28something had caused the ceiling at the back of the plane to collapse there had been an explosive
39:32decompression of the aircraft
39:38whatever it was also ripped off the tail fin and the main hydraulic lines with it making the plane uncontrollable
39:44explosion decompression loss of the tail fin and hydraulic failure the investigators need to find out what
39:57links these four elements together
40:10Haveomer
40:12routinely the investigators begin by looking back into the planes history and they make an
40:24intriguing discovery the plane had been in another accident seven years earlier the pilot landed the
40:30plane with its nose too high the tail struck the ground and scraped along the runway there'd been
40:38a repair to the rear part of the airplane including the rear pressure bulkhead all modern jets aircraft
40:45when they climb they have to be pressurized to keep the cabin to a reasonable level for the
40:49passengers so let's take a 747 when the 747 is on the ground it's actually somewhat oval shaped
40:57and as it climbs and pressurizes it becomes more circular the rear pressure bulkhead is like a huge
41:05metal umbrella lying on its side at the very back of the plane its purpose is to stop pressurized air
41:12escaping from the cabin out through the tail of the aircraft it must be very very heavy and strong
41:20because the forces are tremendous they're over 8 psi differential very a lot of pressure the design of
41:28747 aft pressure bulkhead was what they call a dome and it was designed to take the pressure with a lot less
41:39heavy metal and it's a typical design it's a pressure dome seven years earlier Japan Airlines called in
41:47Boeing to repair the cracked bulkhead Boeing engineers spliced a new panel into the damaged bulkhead but at the
41:55accident site of flight 1 2 3 in 1985 Ron Schleid stumbled across a piece of wreckage that unraveled
42:02the whole mystery it was a piece of this new panel that had been spliced into the bulkhead the repair
42:09had in fact not been done correctly there was only one row of rivets holding that joint together where
42:16there should have been two rows of rivets holding the joint together to explain to the Japanese investigators
42:23what he discovered Ron Schleid sketched out how the repair should have been made and the mistake that
42:29had been made it was a catastrophic error the rivets were carrying twice the force they should have been
42:35one of the FA engineers there did some calculations for us based on this earlier repair of the bulkhead and
42:44his theory was if the repair wasn't done correctly for example if they had not put the rivets in properly and
42:51they only had one row of rivets holding the bulkhead together versus two as designed that it possibly
42:58could it would fail prematurely the FAA engineer calculated that the faulty repair to the bulkhead would
43:05fail after 10,000 flights from the moment the repair was done it was simply a matter of time the
43:21investigators found that a simple human error had led to this
43:35on a summer's evening in 1985 Japan air 1 2 3 lifts off from Haneda Airport it's the 12,319th takeoff
43:46since the repair of the damaged bulkhead a repair that the investigators calculated would only hold for
43:5210,000 flights
43:53as the plane climbs to 7,300 meters the air outside gets thinner and thinner but the air inside the cabin
44:06is pressurized for the passengers comfort the difference of pressure between the passenger cabin
44:11on one side of the bulkhead and the unpressurized tail on the other stretches the bulkhead and its faulty
44:17repair to the breaking point in a test which duplicated these conditions cracks began to appear and lengthen
44:25around the rivet holes until the bulkhead snaps in an instant pressurized air from the cabin blows a
44:36hole in it two to three meters square bringing down the ceiling around the rear toilets the highly
44:45pressurized air blasts its way into the tail fin of the aircraft and simply blows it off
44:50from that moment on the plane is doomed the pilots don't know and will never know that most of the
45:00tail of their aircraft is missing blown off into the sea below along with the crucial hydraulic lines
45:06that allow them to control the plane
45:08it all finally makes sense without the stabilizing influence of the tail and with the loss of ability
45:17to control the rudder and flaps the pilots cannot control the plane the giant aircraft now oscillates
45:24in a terrifying motion called the fugitive cycle as the nose drops into a shallow dive the plane gathers
45:33speed which generates lift the nose rises again and the plane begins to climb until it loses speed tips
45:40over and begins to fall again the whole cycle repeats itself over and over again flight one two three is now
45:48plunging up and down in terrifying dives sometimes several hundred meters at a time it really could
45:55be considered a miracle that the pilots were able to keep the airplane flying for 30 minutes or more
46:00after having lost all the hydraulics in their flight controls but it kept circling and eventually worked
46:06its way into the mountains and it became impossible for them to to land there was no real alternative for
46:12them at all except to fly as long as they could and hope for some miracle which never occurred to understand
46:27what the pilots were up against four hand-picked flight crews were placed in a simulator and confronted
46:33with the same situation not one of them could land the plane the pilots of flight one two three managed
46:41to keep their plane in the air for 30 minutes much of it among high mountains an amazing feat of flying
46:51back in tokyo as the cause of the jal accident was identified
46:56ron schlead had to break the news to his colleague from boeing one of the top designers of the 747
47:03the simple truth was that a single row of rivets had been used when a double row was required
47:08and when we uh described our findings to him you can imagine this boeing man became very very upset
47:16uh personally uh was crying because of the fact that his airplane that he designed and then the
47:24people that did the repair because it was boeing people that designed and did the repair had made
47:29an improper repair that caused the airplane to crash the japanese police wanted to bring criminal charges
47:36against boeing for its part in the tragedy but the prosecutors decided not to go ahead
47:42boeing's reputation was damaged but if they could derive any comfort at all from this tragedy it was
47:48that there was no inherent fault in the 747 the plane continues on to become one of the most successful
47:55civil aircraft of all time however japan airlines the innocent party had no such comfort after i left
48:08the scene and came home it was my understanding that one of the senior japanese airlines maintenance
48:14managers actually committed suicide the japanese airlines president resigned the bookings slumped
48:23rumors abounded in japan that the airline was indeed guilty and that boeing was just taking the rap for a
48:29valuable customer it's taken years for japan airlines to recover from this experience the worst single plane crash
48:39in history
48:47so