a 747 departs tokyo for osaka on a domestic flight on a japanese holiday weekend with 509 passengers and 15 crew on board which was common at the time for 747s to do domestic flights. the plane climbs to 24000 feet witt the fo in the captains seat originally the flight was to avoid the mountains and follow the coast. 12 minutes into the flight a flight attendant asks if a passenger can use the washroom but as he gets up an explosion effects the plane the crew notice all hydrolics is gone immediately and the oxygen masks drop down. the crew originally think the gear but its much worse (the gears not effected) they declare an emergency and return to haneda airrport (Where they left). in the cabin there is panic. the engines aren’t effected its the hydrollics where the problem is so there is no control and the plane is going up and down randomly. the crew are told nagoya is easier but they want haneda they also consider calling the company but won’t at this point. the crew can’t decend due to the hydrolic failure 5 minutes after the explosion a flight atendant calls the cockpit to tell them its in the rear. the crew are facing hypoxia so the situation is getting worse and now the masks at the back of the plane have failed. at japan airlines they are told the rear door is broken which makes them worried the tails damaged from the door coming off (thats half right). the crew are told about an american air force base as an option but they still want haneda. the crew try the engines to get control and initally it works slightly but than they lose control completly putting the plane into a dive. they lower the gear at 20000 feet which doesn’t help with the directional control as they now in themountains of centreal japan. the crew now have the terrain alarm go off the cabin crew trying to calm people down. the plane barely recovers in time from the dive they are now being flying for 22 minutes since the explosion the crew battle to avoid mountains with max power so they reenter the random up down cycle and the speed is too low. the plane enters another dive the worse yet sealing their fate as they hit a mountain just after barely regaining communcation with atc. the japanese rescue forces find the site and send a helicopter which won’t land thinking no one survived. finally they get there and find 4 survivors which means 520 are dead (still the record for a single aircraft crash and 2nd only to taneriffe). the lack of rescue the night of the crash caused a lot of deaths as did the impact at over 100 times the force of gravity. all 4 including an offduty flight attendnat were female and also at the back of thbe plane. they find the tail in tokyo bay meaning it came off during the flight they find after a tailstrike 7 years earlier they didn’t fix the rear preasure bulkhead properly and the repair was lucky not to have failed earlier.no crew in a simulator could keep the plane flying for 32 minutes (The length of the flight after the emergency) or land it.
note this episode and alaska 261 are re done later in the series.
next time a attack by a colleague leads to a dc-10 fighting for survival.
Harrison’s world 