Faulty Boeing Repairs Led to JAL Crash, Panel Finds
Faulty repairs by the Boeing Co. on a bulkhead of a Japan Air Lines jumbo jet caused it to crash in 1985, killing 520 people in history’s worst single-airplane disaster, a government commission said today.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission also said in its official report on the tragedy that JAL’s failure to detect the cracks in the bulkhead during regular maintenance inspections “had a part” in the accident.
The 556-page, two-volume report describes in detail the damage suffered by the Boeing 747-SR that caused it to crash into a mountain northwest of Tokyo.
The report blamed the accident on a rupture in the rear pressure bulkhead on which Boeing made faulty repairs in 1978.
Cracks in Bulkhead
The report said the bulkhead, a circular wall separating the pressurized cabin from the unpressurized tail cone section, developed cracks that weakened it so it could not contain the pressurized air in the cabin.
The rapid release of pressurized air into the plane’s tail section destroyed its vertical tail fin and all four hydraulic systems--components vital to controlling the plane--the report said.
Japan Air Lines President Susumu Yamaji said the company would “take to heart” the report’s recommendations and already has implemented safety measures.
“We hope that through these measures we can succeed in restoring public confidence and credibility in JAL,” he said.
Later, at a news conference, he said that “in the future we will check all aircraft after repairs have been done on them, with a suspicion that the repair may have been faulty. This includes repairs made by Boeing.”
Faulty Procedure Used
Less than a month after the crash, the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer admitted its repair crew used a faulty splice procedure to join the upper and lower sections of the bulkhead.
Last month Boeing accepted full legal responsibility for the crash, which led families of 67 victims to drop JAL from a lawsuit against the two firms in a Seattle court.
The final report capped the government’s investigation of the disaster, but Japanese police are still carrying out a separate criminal investigation and a group of victims’ relatives has asked Tokyo prosecutors to charge top officials of JAL, Boeing and the Transport Ministry with negligent manslaughter.
The plane, on a one-hour flight from Tokyo to Osaka on Aug. 12, 1985, lost control shortly after takeoff and weaved violently for about 30 minutes before crashing into a remote mountain ridge.
Four people survived the crash.
