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Japan Air Lines Flight 123 (Japanese: 日航ジャンボ機墜落事故[1]) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Tokyo to Osaka, Japan. On August 12, 1985, the Boeing 747 operating the service suffered a severe structural failure and decompression 12 minutes into the flight. After flying under minimal control for a further 32 minutes, the 747 crashed in the area of Mount Takamagahara, 100 kilometres (62 mi; 54 nmi) from Tokyo.
![]() The stricken jet photographed minutes before the crash. The vertical stabilizer is largely missing. | |
Accident | |
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Date | August 12, 1985 |
Summary | Crashed following in-flight structural failure |
Site | Mount Takamagahara, Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, Japan 36°0′5″N 138°41′38″E |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 747SR-46 |
Operator | Japan Air Lines |
IATA flight No. | JL123 |
ICAO flight No. | JAL123 |
Call sign | JAPAN AIR 123 |
Registration | JA8119 |
Flight origin | Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan |
Destination | Itami Airport, Osaka, Japan |
Occupants | 524 |
Passengers | 509 |
Crew | 15 |
Fatalities | 520 |
Injuries | 4 |
Survivors | 4 |
The aircraft, featuring a high-density seating configuration, was carrying 524 people. All 15 crew members and 505 of the 509 passengers died in the accident. Some of the fatalities survived the initial impact but died of their injuries hours later while awaiting rescue. All four survivors were seriously injured. The crash of Flight 123 is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history.[2]
Japan's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC),[3]: 129 assisted by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board,[4] concluded that the structural failure was caused by a faulty repair by Boeing technicians following a tailstrike incident seven years earlier. When the faulty repair eventually failed, it resulted in a rapid decompression that ripped off a large portion of the tail and caused the loss of all on-board hydraulic systems, disabling the aircraft's flight controls.