Japan Airlines Flight 2
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Japan Air Lines Flight 2 was a scheduled passenger flight on November 22, 1968. The plane was a new
Douglas DC-8 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 ...
-62 named , flying from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) to
San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...
(SFO). Due to heavy fog and other factors, Captain Kohei Asoh mistakenly
ditched In aviation, a water landing is, in the broadest sense, an Landing, aircraft landing on a body of water. Seaplanes, such as floatplanes and flying boats, land on water as a normal operation. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing on the ...
the plane near Coyote Point in the shallow waters of
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
, two and a half miles short of the runway. None of the 96 passengers and 11 crew were injured in the landing.


Flight

Flight 2 was scheduled to depart Tokyo at 5 p.m. (0800 UTC) on Friday, November 22 and land in San Francisco at 10:15 a.m. (1715 UTC). Actual departure was delayed to 5:36 p.m. (0836 UTC) due to required maintenance on the pilot's instrument panel, which was providing inconsistent altitude readings. Command of the flight fell to Captain Kohei Asoh (46), accompanied in the cockpit by first officer Captain Joseph Hazen (34), flight engineer Richard Fahning (40), and navigator Ichiryo Suzuki (27). The flight was conducted without incident over the next eight hours. The aircraft serial number was 45954, built May 18, 1962 and delivered on May 27. It was equipped with four
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military aviat ...
JT3D The Pratt & Whitney JT3D is an early turbofan aircraft engine derived from the Pratt & Whitney JT3C. It was first run in 1958 and was first flown in 1959 under a B-45 Tornado test aircraft. Over 8,000 JT3Ds were produced between 1959 and 1985. M ...
-3B engines, which had a total operating time of 1707:54 hours. As it approached its destination, JAL002 was picked up by local radar in Oakland at 8:54 a.m. (1654 UTC) when on the 257th radial from the Oakland
Vortac Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...
and the aircraft was cleared for landing at SFO via a waypoint west of the Woodside Vortac station at an altitude of . Oakland TRACON advised the pilots that local visibility at SFO was and the
runway visual range In aviation, the runway visual range (RVR) is the distance over which a pilot of an aircraft on the centreline of the runway can see the runway surface markings delineating the runway or identifying its centre line. RVR is normally expressed in met ...
exceeded , recommending the flight to hold. Commanding pilot Captain Kohei Asoh attempted an automatic-coupled
Instrument Landing System In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...
(ILS) approach due to the heavy fog, which he had never done before on a recorded DC-8-62 flight. JAL002 had started descending from its cruising altitude of at 8:59 a.m. (1659 UTC), passing through approximately eleven minutes later, when Oakland TRACON provided an update on runway visual range at SFO, which had fallen to . JAL002 continued its descent as air traffic control was handed over to Bay TRACON while close to the Woodside Vortac; the pilot reported an altitude of at 9:12:54.3 a.m. (1712:54.3 UTC), then at 9:14:11.3 a.m. (1714:11.3 UTC). Less than a minute later, Captain Asoh requested that "due to the weather at San Francisco, we'd like a long final pproach rather than direct to the outer marker", which would put the aircraft to the east of the original landing path marker and provide a straighter approach to the runway. Under the ILS approach, the autopilot and flight director would be used to control the aircraft's heading and altitude. At 9:16 a.m. (1716 UTC), Bay TRACON instructed Captain Asoh to descend to and maintain altitude and turn left to a heading of 040° while holding at an airspeed of . Updates were made to the flight's heading and altitude in response to air traffic control, and the final approach was commanded at 9:20:44 a.m. when Bay TRACON instructed JAL002 to make a left turn and assume a heading of 280° as they passed through the
localizer An instrument landing system localizer, or simply localizer (LOC), is a system of horizontal guidance in the instrument landing system, which is used to guide aircraft along the axis of the runway. Principle of operation In aviation, a localiz ...
in accordance with the ILS approach. Once the localizer was captured, Captain Asoh moved the autopilot selector from VOR LOC to ILS and slowed the plane to in accordance with instructions from the ground; he used the radio direction indicator as the primary instrument for the approach rather than the glide slope deviation indicator, which was fluctuating at the time. In addition, because his pressure altimeter had been replaced prior to the start of the flight, Captain Asoh did not trust its readings, especially since it continued to disagree with the copilot's instrument, indicating a brief climb each time the aircraft had leveled off during the flight. The cloud ceiling was and there was little contrast between the sky and the calm waters of the bay. As a result, during the final descent, the too-low altitude was not recognized in time to correct it before hitting the water. Captain Asoh had set his minimum descent altitude alert to ; the alert was triggered by the radio altimeter, as the pressure altimeter was reading at the time; as Captain Asoh checked for runway lights, copilot Captain Hazen called out visual updates: "
e are E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...
breaking out of the overcast — I cannot see the runway light — we are too low — pull up, pull up". Captain Asoh later stated that he realized the plane was too low once he spotted the water after the plane broke through the fog with an air speed of . He grabbed the control stick to gain altitude and advanced the throttles in anticipation of having to abort the landing and perform a
go-around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for various reasons, such as an unstab ...
, but the plane's main landing gear had already struck the water, first right then left, approximately short of Runway 28L. The plane landed in the water at approximately 9:24:25 a.m. (1724:25 UTC). Passenger Walter Dunbar recalled "We came in alongside the mountains and went into thick fog. The next thing I knew, we were about one foot off the water. She hit, skipped twice, then nosed up." An early report from the Coast Guard stated the aircraft came to rest upside down. In fact, the plane came to rest on the Bay floor in shallow water approximately deep, leaving the forward exits above the waterline. The chief purser, Kazuo Hashimoto, felt there was no panic amongst passengers after landing, and tried to make an announcement with the public address (PA) system. Since the PA system had failed after the landing, he ended up shouting from the forward cabin for passengers to "Be quiet, the plane has reached the bottom of the sea. It will not sink. Do not worry, we are well-fixed for evacuation." The passengers and crew all evacuated the plane on lifeboats, which were towed by police and Coast Guard boats to the nearby Coyote Point Yacht Harbor. Captain Asoh was the last to leave. Asoh returned to the plane after ensuring everyone was safely ashore to gather and return the passengers' personal belongings. After the incident, the US
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
(NTSB) stated it was the first successful ditching of a jetliner since the inauguration of jet service. The landing may have been assisted by the unusually high tide of , compared with the typical water level of , leading South San Francisco fire chief John Marchi to declare the ditching "a one-in-a-million shot" as the increased depth gave sufficient cushioning while being shallow enough that exit doors would remain above the water.


Investigation

Captain Asoh was a veteran pilot who had flown with Japan Air Lines for 14 years in 1968, with roughly 10,000 hours of flight time, 1,000 of them on DC-8s. During World War II he served as a flight instructor for the Japanese military. His first officer, Captain Joseph Hazen, had similar flight experience and served in the Marine Corps before flying for Air America from 1961 to 1968. Captain Asoh had 1,062 hours of flight time in the DC-8, while Captain Hazen had 18. After becoming familiarized with the DC-8-62 in April 1968, Captain Asoh piloted approximately one round-trip from Tokyo to San Francisco and back via Honolulu per month, starting in July. At the time, Captain Asoh stated (through a translator) that "the plane was fully automatic" and he couldn't "say what was wrong o cause the water landing because he had been in contact with the control tower during the entire approach and was never informed he had deviated from the flight path. According to the NTSB report, Captain Asoh failed to follow the published Japan Airlines procedures to perform an autopilot-controlled descent from the Woodside Vortac and subsequent automatic-coupled approach on ILS. Had the procedure been followed, the localizer first would be coupled, then the flight director/autopilot coupling system would permit the glide slope to be captured. According to his statement, Captain Asoh did not set the autopilot for ILS capture until the aircraft had descended to an altitude of , when it was already below the required glide slope. In-cockpit instruments then should have been sufficient to warn the crew, more than three minutes before the water landing. Other JAL crews reported they were not trained in the use of the Sperry Flight Director System, resulting in revisions to the training program for flight crews. In addition, the language barrier between the commanding pilot and first officer could have been a contributing cause, as there was apparently insufficient "understanding, coordination, and confidence between crewmembers that the pilot flying the aircraft reacts to the other pilot's calls in a manner much the same as if he himself is looking through the other's eyes."


The "Asoh defense"

When asked by the NTSB about the landing, Captain Asoh reportedly replied, "As you Americans say, I fucked up." In his 1988 book '' The Abilene Paradox'', author Jerry B. Harvey termed this frank acceptance of blame the "Asoh defense", and the story and term have been taken up by a number of other management theorists.


Aftermath

The aircraft was not severely damaged and was recovered 55 hours after the incident at high tide, after several failed earlier attempts to hoist it out of the water. Bigge Drayage Company recovered the airplane using four crane barges; the primary lift was handled by two Smith-Rice 90-ton Dravo revolving cranes under the wings, while two Healy-Tibbitts 50-ton cranes were positioned fore and aft to maintain the balance of the aircraft as it was lifted from the water. Because the tail had flooded, the aft crane performed the first lift to allow water to drain, and of fresh water were used to rinse that section after of saltwater had been removed. The forward crane was held in standby in case the load shifted due to movement of liquids inside the plane. A rig designed by Albert Kelly, named Air International Recovery (A.I.R.), was used during the salvage, equipped with lifting beams under each wing and a cradle for the nose. After being sprayed down with of fresh water, it was transported to the airport on a barge. After being transported to the airport, Shiga rolled off the barge on its own landing gear. External damage was extremely minor, as it had been noted that the only part of external equipment damaged on the aircraft was the right gear bogie, as one wheel had been sheared off when the plane ditched. Further inspections revealed only slight structural damage, with repairs estimated to take less than six months.
United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
offered JAL to refurbish and repair the aircraft for , to which Japan Airlines agreed, and the aircraft was fixed and refurbished over a period of half a year. The aircraft was returned to JAL on March 31, 1969, and underwent a successful test flight on April 11, 1969, from San Francisco to Honolulu. It was later renamed and continued in service to JAL until 1983. Asoh was temporarily barred from passenger planes, demoted to First Officer, went through further ground training, and continued to fly for JAL until his retirement. Hazen also returned to flying a few months later. By 1973 Japan Air Lines was using
Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
aircraft on the Tokyo to San Francisco route. Today, Japan Airlines still operates a route named Flight 2 (JAL002) from Haneda to San Francisco, currently using the
Boeing 777-300ER The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap bet ...
or
Boeing 787-9 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...
.


Aircraft later history

JA8032 was sold to Air ABC (registration TF-BBF), then to
Okada Air Okada Air was an airline based in Benin City, Nigeria. The carrier was established in 1983 with a fleet of BAC-One Eleven 300s. and started charter operations in the same year. In 1984, a Boeing 707-355C was acquired for cargo operations. By ...
(registration 5N-AON), and finally flew as an express freighter for
Airborne Express Airborne Express was an express delivery company and cargo airline. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, its hub was in Wilmington, Ohio. Airborne was founded as the Airborne Flower Traffic Association of California in 1946 to fly flowers fr ...
(registration ) before being decommissioned and scrapped at Wilmington Air Park (ILN) in December 2001.


See also

*
Japan Air Lines Flight 350 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, registered ''JA8061'', on a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, to Tokyo in Japan. The airplane crashed 9 February 1982 on approach to Haneda Airport in Tokyo Bay, resulting ...
– a DC-8 which ditched in
Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...
short of Haneda in 1982 *
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 was a scheduled international flight from Denmark to the United States that on January 13, 1969, crashed into Santa Monica Bay at 19:21, approximately west of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Ca ...
– a DC-8 which ditched in
Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is a bight (geography), bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn betwe ...
short of LAX in 1969


Notes


References


External links

*
Photograph in Flight International, Dec 5, 1968, showing the aircraft being lifted out of the water

Smooth Landings and Stupid Travel News
* {{Japan Airlines Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1968 Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8 Airliner accidents and incidents involving ditching History of San Mateo County, California 2 Airliner accidents and incidents in California 1968 in California November 1968 events in the United States San Francisco International Airport