Out of Control

The worst single air crash in the history of aviation.
Japan Airlines flight 123
(registration tail number JA8119)

this photograph was taken 15 months from its accident.

CGI image shows the tail and the rear bulkhead is gone.

Japan Airlines flight 123 incident (august 15, 1985) Boeing 747-SR46

The flight took off from Tokyo International Airport in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan at 6:12 p.m. About 12 minutes after takeoff, as the aircraft reached cruising altitude over Sagami Bay, the rear pressure bulkhead failed, causing an explosive decompression at the rear of the fuselage which tore the vertical stabilizer from the aircraft and severed the lines of all four of the aircraft's hydraulic systems. A photograph (shown) taken from the ground some time later showed that the vertical stabilizer was missing. The pilots, including Captain Masami Takahama, first officer Yutaka Sasaki, and flight engineer Hiroshi Fukuda, set their transponder to broadcast a distress signal to air traffic control in Tokyo, who directed the aircraft to descend and gave it heading vectors for an emergency landing. Continued control problems required them to first request vectors back to Haneda, then to Yokota (a U.S. military air base), then back to Haneda again as the aircraft wandered uncontrollably. With the loss of all control surfaces, the aircraft began to oscillate up and down in what is known as a phugoid cycle, a flight mode typical of accidents that disables an aircraft's controls. After descending to 13,500 feet (4100 m), the pilots reported that the aircraft was uncontrollable. It flew over the Izu Peninsula, headed for the Pacific Ocean, then turned back toward the shore and descended to below 7,000 feet (2100 m) before the pilots managed to return to a climb. The aircraft reached an altitude of 13,000 feet (4000 m) before entering a wild descent into the mountains and disappearing from radar at 6:56 p.m. and 6,800 feet (2100 m). During the oscillations that preceded the crash, the pilots managed a small measure of control by using engine thrust. The final moments of the plane occurred when it hit a mountain as a result of this loss of control, flipped, and landed on its back.

Out of 524 passengers and crew members on board there are 520 fatalities

only 4 people survive on flight 123

Thirty-two minutes elapsed from the time of the accident to the time of the crash, long enough for some passengers to write farewells to their families. According to at least one TV documentary, some passengers, not having access to writing instruments, cut themselves and used their own blood to write farewell messages.

Photograph taken by a witness of the crippled 747. The location of the missing vertical stabilizer is circled.