Japan Air Lines Flight 471 was a

Japan Air Lines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

international flight An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in different countries. Regular international passenger air service began in August 1919 with a flight going from Lond ...

from

Don Mueang International Airport Don Mueang International Airport ( th, ท่าอากาศยานดอนเมือง, , , or colloquially as , ) is one of two international airports serving the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, the other one being Suvarnabhumi Airp ...

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

to Palam International Airport (now

Indira Gandhi International Airport Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of , is situated in Palam, Delhi, southwest of the New ...

) in New Delhi, India. On 14 June 1972 the

Douglas DC-8-53 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in Ju ...

operating the flight, registered JA8012, crashed short of the New Delhi airport, killing 82 of 87 occupants: 10 of 11 crew members, and 72 of 76 passengers. Four people on the ground were also killed.

Passengers

Sixteen of the dead were Americans. Brazilian actress Leila Diniz was also among those killed, as was the sole Indian passenger on the flight, Dr. K.K.P. Narasinga Rao, a senior official of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Sequence of events

The flight was on the Bangkok-New Delhi portion of its Tokyo-London route when the accident occurred. The flight took off from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok at 11:21 UTC en route to New Delhi. At 14:43 UTC, the flight was given clearance for a straight-in ILS approach to runway 28. The plane crashed into the banks of the Yamuna River not long after the 23 mile (43 km) report from the DME.

Cause

The exact cause of the accident remains disputed. Investigators representing Japan pointed to the possibility of a false

glide path Instrument landing system glide path, commonly referred to as a glide path (G/P) or glide slope (G/S), is "a system of vertical guidance embodied in the instrument landing system which indicates the vertical deviation of the aircraft from its o ...

signal causing the crash. Indian investigators claimed the crash was caused by

pilot error Pilot error generally refers to an accident in which an action or decision made by the pilot was the cause or a contributing factor that led to the accident, but also includes the pilot's failure to make a correct decision or take proper a ...

, specifically the captain ignoring instrument indications and not having sight of the runway (the first officer was flying the approach to New Delhi).

References

Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error

471 __NOTOC__ Year 471 ( CDLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Novus and Probianus (or, less frequently, year 1224 '' A ...

Aviation accidents and incidents in India Aviation accidents and incidents in 1972 Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8 Aviation accident investigations with disputed causes 1972 in India 1972 in Japan June 1972 events in Asia {{aviation-accident-stub

Passengers

Sequence of events

Cause

See also

References