The violent forces exerted by the turbulent air could have caused structural failure of one of the engines, leading to a subsequent fire. He had considerable flying experience, having logged more than 6,500 flight hours. All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. The aircraft (registration G-APFE) arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport at 12:40 on the day of the accident from Fukuoka Airport, where it had diverted the previous day due to conditions on the ground in Tokyo. British Overseas Airways flight 911 was scheduled to leave Tokyo at 1:30pm for Hong Kong and due to the perfect weather conditions, Captain Bernard Dobson (45) requested a change of the scheduled flight plan, climbing visually via Mt. How to describe the new Martin Luther King statue? Clara Lee Long The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (B3A) was established in Geneva in 1990 for the purpose to deal with all information related to aviation accidentology. Subsequent inspections on Boeing 707 and similar Boeing 720 aircraft as a result of this discovery did reveal this was a common problem, and corrective maintenance actions on the fleet eventually followed. The Second Officer, who helped guide the passengers in the initial stages, followed, the pilot-in-command, having assisted the stewardess to inflate the port forward chute, also left by the flight deck window after seeing the evacuation was proceeding satisfactorily. Update now. It also stated "it is not unreasonable to assume that, on the day of the accident, powerful mountain waves existed in the lee of Mt Fuji, as in the case of mountain waves formed by extended ridges, and that the breakdown of the waves resulted in small-scale turbulence, the intensity of which might have become severe or extreme in a short period of time.". John P Bocchi. Fuji was registering winds of 60-70kts. The pilot-in-command then ordered immediate evacuation of the flight deck. After takeoff, the aircraft made a continuous climbing right turn over Tokyo Bay, and rolled out on a southwest heading, passing north of Odawara. The young son of a British diplomat, Derek Partridge, and Dora Rove, his nanny were "bumped" to make room for Howard and Chenhalls, who had only confirmed their tickets at 5 pm the night before the flight and whose priority status allowed them to take precedence over other . [5] It then turned right again toward the mountain, flying over Gotemba on a heading of approximately 298, at an indicated airspeed of 320 to 370 knots, and an altitude of approximately 16,000ft (4,900m), well above the 12,388ft (3,776m) mountain peak. 2 engine, together with part of its pylon, became detached and fell into a waterfilled gravel pit. 11 September marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, deadliest terrorist incident in world history, A total of 2,977 were killed in the attacks, How to use the cold weather payment postcode checker, and when the 25 is paid, Ken Bruce promises golden oldies at Greatest Hits Radio after row over Radio 2 axing classics, NHS workers will keep striking for months as ministers set to ignore pay talks until April, Tories fear 'lurch to the right' after election defeat, with Badenoch among favourites to lead, Why journalists can't name an MP arrested for rape: Inside the battle for press freedom, Braverman refuses to apologise to Holocaust survivor, 83, over refugee 'invasion' remarks, 'We have a trauma bond': Life after The Traitors. Nevertheless, they were aware that a serious fire continued to burn. The aircraft left the ramp at 13:50. During the examination, pathologist Antonio Fornari found broken and damaged limbs, which had apparently occurred after death. For the next TokyoHong Kong segment, the crew received a weather briefing from a company representative, and filed an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan calling for a southbound departure from Haneda via the island of Izu shima, then on airway JG6 to Hong Kong at flight level 310 (31,000 feet). The aircraft left a debris field 16km (10mi) long. In order to simulate the crash, the investigators deliberately ruptured the model fuselage by increasing the air pressure inside until it exploded. These passengers, Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Ken Adam, Lewis Gilbert, and Freddie Young, were in Japan scouting locations for the fifth James Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967). To find more evidence concerning the cause of the crash, the bodies were brought to the coroner for post-mortem. He had flown a total of approximately 4,900 hours. [1], G-APFE, the aircraft involved, pictured in 1962, In-flight break-up caused by clear air turbulence. Meantime Meteorological Reports had been passing from ground to air. One of those who saw the disaster was Shizuaoka Serizawa, a weather observer near Mt. Iowa: Howard C. Maxwell Altoona In addition, it was discovered that the stresses around pressure cabin apertures were considerably higher than had been anticipated, particularly around sharp-cornered cut-outs, such as square windows. The failure of the wheel was due to fatigue. Initial examination and reconstruction of the wreckage of G-ALYP revealed several signs of inflight break-up: With most of the wreckage recovered, investigators found that fractures started in the roof of the cabin, a window then smashed into the elevators, the rear fuselage then tore away, the outer wing structure fell, then the outer wing tips and finally the cockpit broke away and fuel from the wings set the debris on fire. Before this could be carried out there was an explosion from the port wing which increased the intensity of the fire and blew fragments of the wing over to the starboard side of the aircraft. Miss Linda Natalie Lohnes Boston or Milton [3], An extensive search for the aircraft was organised, which included the Royal Navy ships HMS Barhill and HMS Gambia as well as the Maltese civilian salvage vessel Sea Salvor. London - Zurich - Tel Aviv - Tehran - Bombay - Singapore - Sydney. It showed pictures of the Tanzawa Mountains and Lake Yamanaka, followed by two empty frames and then apparently images of the aircraft's interior, before ending abruptly. However, due to poor meteorological conditions at Tokyo and because the precision approach radar (PAR) of the GCA was out of service, it diverted to Fukuoka (FUK) and landed there at 18:00. After the aircraft came to rest the flight engineer commenced the engine shut-down drill and closed the start levers. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Layeta A. Hollenbeck [3] The Boeing was commanded by Captain Bernard Dobson, 45, from Dorset, described as a very experienced 707 pilot who had been flying the type since 1960. The runway to be used was Runway 31 which required the approach to be made from the southeast. Evelyn Vanderwall Still, it was potentially a significant flight safety issue. Bruce D Boehm. The pilothad inadvertently exposed his plane to the worst of the conditionsHe hit an unseen cauldron of fiercely boiling air the vicious rotor zone of eh severe atmospheric turbulence the 70 knot wind was creating in the lee of the 12,000ft mountainThe shock would have felt something like colliding with an invisible wallin this case sufficient to immediately snap off the tail fin, together with all four engines in their mountings beneath the wind. (Faith, Nicholas. It was Japans second major air disaster within 19 hours and the third in a month. However, a second BOAC de Havilland Comet, registered G-ALYY, was lost on 8 April 1954: a charter flight, operating as South African Airways Flight 201, departed from Rome bound for Egypt with fourteen passengers and seven crew on board; thirty-three minutes into the flight the pilot reported on course flying at 10,000 metres, then all contact was lost. In the meantime, all Comets were to be grounded until the turbine modifications had been carried out. It could possibly have taken as long as five months. Officials at the scene said the winds and air currents could have overcome the plane, then braced its fall. BOAC Flight 911 ( call sign "Speedbird 911") was a round-the-world flight operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) that crashed near Mount Fuji in Japan on 5 March 1966, with the loss of all 113 passengers and 11 crew members. To find out what caused the first failure, BOAC donated G-ALYU ("Yoke Uncle") for testing. Carolina: Charles Allen Varner Charlotte The New York Times reported on 12 January that BOAC had temporarily withdrawn all of their de Havilland Comet jet airliners from service, as a result of the crash, and that the two French airlines that used the CometAir France and Union Aero Maritime des Transportshad also suspended their Comet services. Analysis of the location of wreckage allowed the accident investigators to determine that the vertical stabiliser attachment to the fuselage failed first. According to his evidence, having completed Phase 1 of the engine fire drill, which is required to be done by memory, he subsequently used his own copy of the checklist to complete Phase I1 of the drill, including the operation of the fire extinguisher transfer switch and pushing the discharge button for the second shot thirty seconds after the first. And once when you look death in the face, Your email address will not be published. 17 California residents. Lillian Weiss Comet 4s flew with BOAC until 1965 and with British . The use of reverse thrust caused the flames to be deflected in towards the fuselage. Washington County Services. Murray Leon Goldstein Nellie D. Kimutis Torrance Women Among Victims of BOAC Disaster. 3-6-1966, p. 1. It was instructed to make "a right turn after take off", and departed Tokyo Airport at 13:58. Sorry, you have Javascript Disabled! The aircraft was prepared for the next leg to Hong Kong and a flight plan was filed for a flight in accordance with the instrument flight rules via Oshima on airway JG6 to Hong Kong at FL310. BOAC Flight 911 was a scheduled service from San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) via Honolulu (HNL) and Tokyo (HND . The experiment was run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. UPI. Air Disaster Volume 1, p.4849, Stone, Richard, "124 die in 2nd Japan air disaster" quote:"A BOAC spokesman said 75 of the Americans aboard were members of a tour sponsored by Thermo King Corp. of Minneapolis, Minn.". The first officer was Edward A. Maloney, a veteran. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. It is reasonably easy to surmise types on each route by date (eg Solents giving way to Argonauts ? The Comet's pressure cabin had been designed to a safety factor comfortably in excess of that required by British Civil Airworthiness Requirements (BCAR)the requirement was 1.33 times P with an ultimate load of 2 times P (where P is the cabin's "Proof" pressure), but the safety factor used in the Comet was 2.5 times Phence the accident led to revised estimates for the safe loading strength requirements of airliner pressure cabins. London Prestwick Shannon Gander New York. The C Class Flying boats Caribou and Cabot were bombed and destroyed in Norway. Massachusetts Karol Kawa North Dartmouth Loca Coyde Jones Torrance It began to sway from side to side, like a leaf, he said. Helen R. Kerwin Air Disaster Volume 1, p.44, Job, Macaurthur. Three times, the captain decided to abandon the approach procedure for a go around maneuver. Washington County has a shared repeater on 453.150 MHz located on Fairview Mountain with a license of KNEX271. The mid-aft fuselage together with the wing, making a slow flat spin to the right, crashed into a forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. Boeing 707-436 photographed at New York John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport in 1962 - Photo: John Proctor 1940. BOAC Flight 781 was a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) passenger flight from Singapore to London. ATC ordered other landing aircraft to overshoot in order to ensure a clear approach to Runway 05 R and to clear Runway 28R for the passage of the fire vehicles. The flight engineer went for the engine fire shut-off handle but he did not pull it. To make this possible, a model fuselage was constructed that was similar to that of the Comet. [12], The victims included a group of 75 Americans associated with the Thermo King company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a two-week company-sponsored tour of Japan and Southeast Asia. The attacks remain the deadliest terrorist incident in world history. Josephine D. Varner The captain decided to complete a belly landing on the sandy area alongside the runway. Although the US bound flight had to stop to refuel in Newfoundland, the London flight made the journey non-stop in six hours and 11 minutes. At 13:42 hours the crew contacted ATC requesting permission to start the engines and clearance for a VMC climb via Fuji-Rebel-Kushimoto. Wisconsin: Donald J. Fleming Green Bay In 1966, the crash of BOAC flight 911 almost led to the death of legendary Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman as well as production designer Ken Adam, director Lewis Gilbert and cinematographer Freddie Young. BOAC Flight 712, a Boeing 707-465, G-ARWE, burning on the runway at Heathrow, 8 April 1968. . Faith, Nicholas. The flight engineer saw that the port forward chute had not inflated properly so he climbed down it to straighten it. It was concluded that, while approaching Mt. The forward fuselage crashed into the forest approx. Nevertheless, the fire warning light in No. The accident was the result of loss of height and airspeed caused by the aircraft en- countering, at approximately 250 feet after takeoff, an unpredictable thunderstorm cell which gave rise to a sudden reversal of wind direction, heavy rain, and possible downdraught conditions. The aircraft, trailing white vapor, then suddenly lost altitude over the Takigahara area, and parts of the aircraft began to break away over Tsuchiyadai and Ichirimatsu. 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