was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, registered ''JA8061'', on a domestic scheduled passenger flight from

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...

Fukuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders Saga Prefecture to the southwest, K ...

, to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

in Japan. The airplane crashed 9 February 1982 on approach to

Haneda Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

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 populou ...

, resulting in 24 fatalities. Flight 350 was the first crash for

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 ...

in the 1980s. The investigation traced the cause of the crash to the deliberate actions of the captain.

Flight

The crew consisted of 35-year-old

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Seiji Katagiri (片桐清二 ''Katagiri Seiji''), 33-year-old First Officer Yoshifumi Ishikawa, and 48-year-old

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is the member of an aircraft's flight crew who monitors and operates its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referred to as the "air m ...

Yoshimi Ozaki.Stokes, Henry Scott.
Cockpit Fight Reported on Jet That Crashed in Tokyo
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. 14 February 1982. Retrieved 24 June 2011. The cause of the crash was traced to Katagiri's deliberate crashing of the plane. One report states that the captain engaged the inboard

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power g ...

' thrust-reversers in flight. Another report states that, during descent, Katagiri "cancelled

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

, pushed his controls forward and retarded the throttles to idle."Aviation Safety Network
''Accident description''. Retrieved 4 April 2015. Ishikawa and Ozaki worked to restrain Katagiri and regain control. Despite their efforts, the DC-8's descent could not be completely checked and it touched down in shallow water 510 meters (1673 feet) short of the runway. During the crash, the cockpit section of the DC-8 separated from the rest of the fuselage and continued to travel for several meters before coming to a halt. Among the 166 passengers and 8 crew, 24 died. Following the accident, Katagiri, one of the first people to take a rescue boat, told rescuers that he was an office worker to avoid being identified as the captain. Katagiri was later found to have

paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...

prior to the incident, which resulted in his being ruled not guilty by reason of insanity. Investigators for the Japanese government attributed the incident to a lack of proper medical examinations which allowed Katagiri to fly. Katagiri has since been released from psychiatric care and lives near

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest ...

.The Suicidal Pilot Who Survived
/ref>

References

External links

Final Accident Report
–

Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission The Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission (AAIC, 航空事故調査委員会 ''Kōkūjiko chōsa iinkai'') was a government agency of Japan which investigated aviation accidents and incidents. It was subordinate to the Ministry of Transport, ...

{{JAL Group 1982 crimes in Japan Airliner accidents and incidents involving deliberate crashes Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1982 Aviation accidents and incidents in Japan 350 Mass murder in 1982 Haneda Airport February 1982 events in Asia Mass murder in Japan Airliner accidents and incidents involving ditching

Flight

See also

References

External links