Quote:
Originally Posted by rishi85
according to you? Not counting the 9/11 attacks. Just planes going about their destination and crashing.
MH 17?
Tenerife disaster?
Lockerbie?
1977 Chicago crash?
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This short list has to include Japan Airlines Flight 123. It was a scheduled domestic Japan Airlines passenger flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Osaka International Airport, Japan. On Monday, August 12, 1985, a Boeing 747SR operating this route suffered an explosive decompression 12 minutes into the flight and, 32 minutes later, crashed into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara 62 miles from Tokyo.
Many things about this crash made it horrible. There were 509 passengers and 15 crew and only 4 survivors. That made it the largest number of fatalities from a single plane crash (Tenerife involved two B747s).
The plane crash was at about 6:30 PM and for some unknown reason someone in Japan rejected the US offer of help to fight through the dense wilderness, that night. By the time they found the plane in the morning it was clear that many survivors died after the survivor.
Among the victims was one of the world's most famous Japanese singer, who had an international hit in the early 1960's called Sukiyaki in the western world.
The plane was 11 years old and had been in a tailstrike 7 years earlier and was repaired incorrectly . The final crash was due to metal fatigue in the bulkhead. The manager of the maintenance team committed suicide after the report was released.
Boeing calculated that the incorrect repair would fail after 10,000 pressurization cycles; the aircraft accomplished 12,318 flights before the crash. A typical USA B747 might not have reached 10,000 flights over the lifetime of the plane, but JAL was flying it 6 or 7 times per day over the short distance.
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. Families of the victims, together with local volunteer groups, hold an annual memorial gathering every August 12 near the crash site.
JAL took delivery of 114 B747s. The plane involved in JAL123 was one of the -100 variants and was line number 230.
Boeing 747-100 20
Boeing 747-200 34
Boeing 747-300 16
Boeing 747-400 44
Personally, I think that memories of this disaster made it difficult for the Japanese airlines to invest in the A380, as it could carry more passengers/crew than the 520 fatalities that night. Emirates has a 615 seat, two cabin A380s, so I figured ANA would beat that number with one of their three A380s. However ANA announced will feature between 500 and 600 seats.
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