524 Feared Dead as Packed Jetliner Crashes in Japan : Toll Would Be Worst for Single Plane

A packed Japan Air Lines jetliner carrying 524 people on a domestic flight slammed into a mountain and exploded in flames today shortly after the pilot reported that a door seal had burst, suddenly depressurizing the cabin. There were no immediate reports of survivors.

If all aboard were killed, the crash would be the worst single airplane accident and the second-worst air disaster in aviation history. Most of those aboard were Japanese.

The Boeing 747 jumbo jet--JAL Flight 123--was flying from Tokyo’s Haneda airport to the western city of Osaka when it went down in the remote Gumma district about 45 minutes after its 6:12 p.m. takeoff, authorities said.

60 Miles From Tokyo

A spokesman for the Japan Self-Defense Forces said the plane slammed into the north face of 6,900-foot Mt. Ogura, near the village of Kita Aikimura, about 60 miles northwest of Tokyo. Witnesses said that the plane ignited fires in the wooded hillsides and that burning wreckage was strewn over a three-mile area.

About 700 troops were rushed to the area to search for survivors, and 2,700 more were to be dispatched by morning. Officials said rescue teams were hampered by darkness and the rugged terrain and were delayed by an initial report that put the crash in the neighboring district of Nagano.

Japan Air Lines officials said the plane carried 509 passengers, including 21 foreigners, and a crew of 15. It was not known if any of the foreigners were Americans. Among the Japanese aboard was Kyu Sakamoto, the singer who won international fame with the hit record “Sukiyaki” in the 1960s.

Religious Holiday

Airline officials said the plane took off packed with businessmen and vacationers traveling during the Obon festival, a religious holiday week during which Japanese visit family homes and honor their ancestors.

At 6:39 p.m., the pilot, Capt. Masami Takahama, 49, radioed air traffic controllers that a seal had burst in a rear cabin door, suddenly depressurizing the cabin.

Takahama said he would attempt an emergency landing at the U.S. Air Force base at Yokota, but the plane vanished from radar screens at 6:59 p.m.

One witness told Kyodo news service that he saw “red flames shoot up” from a “large aircraft” near the border of the districts of Nagano and Gumma, then saw “black smoke” billowing from the aircraft.

Specially Designed

The crew of a U.S. Air Force C-130 transport plane flying nearby also reported seeing a plane on fire.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Jim Boynton said the airliner had been specially designed for the airline’s short-distance domestic route from Tokyo to Osaka and was carrying nearly 150 passengers more than usual on 747s.

He said that 747s used by most international carriers are outfitted with about 420 seats and that most American carriers have about 380 seats. The JAL jetliner had 528 seats.

“The airlines simply buy the seats to do whatever they want to do,” Boynton said. “They cut out the galleys and reduce the space between seats to accommodate more people.”

In the worst-ever single-plane disaster to date, 346 people were killed March 3, 1974, when a Turkish DC-10 jet crashed at Ermenonville near Paris.

The worst disaster in aviation history occurred on March 27, 1977, when 582 people were killed in the collision of a KLM Boeing 747 and a taxiing Pan Am 747 at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.

The worst Japanese aviation disaster to date occurred July 30, 1971, when 162 people died when an All-Nippon Boeing 727 and a Japanese air force F-86 fighter jet collided over Morioka.