| Date: | Tuesday 9 February 1982 |
| Time: | 08:44 |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 |
| Owner/operator: | Japan Air Lines - JAL |
| Registration: | JA8061 |
| MSN: | 45889/291 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1967 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 36955 hours |
| Engine model: | P&W JT3D-3B |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 24 / Occupants: 174 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Tokyo-Haneda Airport (HND) -
 Japan
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Fukuoka Airport (FUK/RJFF) |
| Tokyo-Haneda Airport (HND/RJTT) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIC |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
JAL flight JL350, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, crashed while on approach to Tokyo-Haneda Airport, Japan, killing 24 occupants; 150 survived the accident.
Flight JL350 took off from Fukuoka (FUK) runway 16 at 07:34 for a regular flight to Tokyo-Haneda (HND). The aircraft climbed to the cruising altitude of FL290. At 08:22 the crew started their descend to FL160. After reaching that altitude, they were cleared to descend down to 3000 feet. The aircraft was cleared for a runway 33R ILS approach and 5deg of flaps were selected at 08:35, followed by 25 degrees of flaps one minute later. The landing gear was lowered at 08:39 and 50 degrees of flaps were selected two minutes after that. At 08:42 the aircraft descended through 1000 feet at an airspeed of 135 knots with wind from a direction of 360deg at 20 knots. The co-pilot called out "500 feet" at 08:43:25 but the captain did not make the "stabilized" call-out as specified by JAL operational regulations. The airspeed decreased to 133 knots as the aircraft descended through 300 feet at 08:43:50 and the co-pilot warned the captain that the aircraft was approaching the decision height. At 08:43:56 the radio altimeter warning sounded, followed by the flight engineer calling out "200 feet", which was the decision height, three seconds later . At 08:44:01 the aircraft descended through 164 feet at 130KIAS. At that moment the captain cancelled autopilot, pushed his controls forward and retarded the throttles to idle. The co-pilot tried to regain control but the aircraft crashed into the shallow water of Tokyo Bay, 510 m short of the runway 33R threshold. The nose and the right hand wing separated from the fuselage.
The captain had a history of psychiatric issues, specifically paranoid schizophrenia, and had been prescribed psychotropic drugs from late 1980 to late 1981.
Despite outwardly appearing normal, he showed abnormal behaviors, especially during lapses in medication.
Although he had been deemed fit for captain duty in late 1981, his psychiatric condition persisted.
The captain’s mental deterioration likely culminated in hallucinations and delusional behavior. He possibly acted under a command hallucination and performed the three fatal control inputs.
People around the captain (his wife, friends, colleagues, superiors) suspected something was wrong but failed to report or act decisively.
Probable Cause (translated from Japanese):
The probable cause of this accident is considered to be the captain's actions during the landing approach at low altitude—specifically, pushing the control yoke forward without necessity, pulling back all engine power levers to the forward idle position, and then further pulling the reverse levers of engines No. 2 and No. 3 to the reverse idle position.
It is recognized that the reason the captain carried out such actions was due to a psychological disturbance.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
Aircraft Accident in Japan by SAKUMA Mitsuo
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 02-Jan-2025 19:24 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, ] |
| 13-Jul-2025 08:57 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, ] |
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