Japan Air Lines Flight 715 - Misplaced Pages

1977 aviation accident

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Japan Air Lines Flight 715
日本航空クアラルンプール墜落事故
Occurrence
JA8051, the aircraft involved in the accident
Date	27 September 1977
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
Site	Elmina Estate, near Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang, Malaysia
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62H
Operator	Japan Air Lines
Registration	JA8051
Flight origin	Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, Japan
1st stopover	Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong
Last stopover	Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang, Malaysia
Destination	Singapore International Airport, Singapore
Passengers	69
Crew	10
Fatalities	34
Injuries	45
Survivors	45

Japan Air Lines Flight 715 (日本航空 715便, Nihonkōkū 715 Bin) was an airplane that crashed in Malaysia on 27 September 1977. It was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, registration JA8051, on a flight from Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, to Singapore International Airport in Singapore, with stopovers at Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, and Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Malaysia. Ten crew and 69 passengers were on board. It was the second-deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Malaysia at the time.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62H (serial number 46152 and factory 550), manufactured in 1971, and delivered to Japan Air Lines on 23 August. It was registered as JA8051. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan engines.

Accident

Two hours into the flight, air traffic control at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport told flight 715 to start its approach and land on runway 15. The flight crew started their approach, putting the landing gear down and extending the flaps. The aircraft descended below minimum descent altitude of 750 feet (230 m), then at 300 feet (91 m), it crashed into the side of a hill 4 miles (3.5 nmi; 6.4 km) from the airport, near an estate called Elmina Estate. The aircraft broke on impact, and a fire erupted, which was extinguished by airport rescue and firefighting.

The accident killed 34 people: eight of the 10 crew and 26 of the 69 passengers. Forty-five survivors, among the passengers and crew, were taken to a hospital. The remains from the crash could be found in the soil surrounding the estate until 2011. Most of the land now is being converted to developments.

A memorial was built in the Japanese cemetery in Kuala Lumpur.

The crash was the second-deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Malaysia until the crash of Malaysian Airline System Flight 653, two months later, with 100 fatalities.

Investigation

The Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation investigated the accident. At the time of the crash, the weather around the airport was poor and the aircraft was on a VOR approach. The investigation determined that the cause of the accident was the captain descending below the minimum descent altitude without having the runway in sight, and continuing the descent, causing the aircraft to crash before reaching the airport. The flight crew loss of sight of the airport due to bad weather, which also contributed to the accident. In addition, the first officer did not challenge the captain for violating the regulations.

References

^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62H JA8051 Kuala Lumpur Subang International Airport (KUL)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
"A body part of the Japan Airlines 715 is seen a day after the crash..." Getty Images. 8 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
"JA8051 Japan Airlines Douglas DC-8-62H - cn 46152 / ln 550". Planespotters.net. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Nadeswaran, R. (27 September 2020). "NST175: Japan Airlines crash changed my life". New Straits Times. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
Thuraisingam, K. (15 October 2017). "Malaysian Civil Defence officer remembers the JAL plane crash of 1977". The Star. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
"45 Survive Fiery Malaysia Jet Crash". Desert Sun. 27 September 1977. Retrieved 12 March 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ "Accidents JAL has caused other than Flight 123 Accident". JAPAN AIRLINES Corporate Information. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
"マレーシア日本人墓地を訪ねて" [Visit a Japanese cemetery in Malaysia]. www.eva.hi-ho.ne.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
"Aircraft Accident Report No. 1/77 - Chief Inspector of Accidents & Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia. - McDonnell Douglas DC-8 (Super 62) - JA8051 - Report on the Accident Near Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Subang, Selangor on 27th September, 1977" (PDF). Ministry of Transport Malaysia.

External links

Portals:

Entry at Aviation-Safety.net
Memorial of the crash site (in Japanese)

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1977 (1977)
Jan 5 Connellan air disasterJan 13 Aeroflot Flight 3843Jan 13 Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045Jan 15 Linjeflyg Flight 618Feb 15 Aeroflot Flight 5003Mar 17 British Airtours Boeing 707 crashMar 27 Tenerife airport disasterApr 4 Southern Airways Flight 242Apr 12 Delta Air Lines Flight 1080May 7 Tavda mid-air collisionMay 10 Israeli CH-53 crashMay 14 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crashMay 27 Aeroflot Flight 331Jul 10 Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134 hijackingJul 20 Aeroflot Flight B-2Aug 1 Encino helicopter crashSep 21 Malév Flight 203Sep 27 Japan Air Lines Flight 715Sep 27 Yokohama F-4 crashSep 28 Japan Air Lines Flight 472Oct 13 Lufthansa Flight 181Oct 20 Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crashNov 19 TAP Flight 425Nov 21 Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 9Dec 2 Libyan Arab Airlines Tu-154 crashDec 4 Malaysian Airline System Flight 653Dec 13 Air Indiana Flight 216Dec 17 United Airlines Flight 2860Dec 18 SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730Dec 19 Vieques Air Link crash
1976 ◄ ► 1978

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1977 (1977)

Jan 5 Connellan air disasterJan 13 Aeroflot Flight 3843Jan 13 Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045Jan 15 Linjeflyg Flight 618Feb 15 Aeroflot Flight 5003Mar 17 British Airtours Boeing 707 crashMar 27 Tenerife airport disasterApr 4 Southern Airways Flight 242Apr 12 Delta Air Lines Flight 1080May 7 Tavda mid-air collisionMay 10 Israeli CH-53 crashMay 14 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crashMay 27 Aeroflot Flight 331Jul 10 Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134 hijackingJul 20 Aeroflot Flight B-2Aug 1 Encino helicopter crashSep 21 Malév Flight 203Sep 27 Japan Air Lines Flight 715Sep 27 Yokohama F-4 crashSep 28 Japan Air Lines Flight 472Oct 13 Lufthansa Flight 181Oct 20 Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crashNov 19 TAP Flight 425Nov 21 Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 9Dec 2 Libyan Arab Airlines Tu-154 crashDec 4 Malaysian Airline System Flight 653Dec 13 Air Indiana Flight 216Dec 17 United Airlines Flight 2860Dec 18 SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730Dec 19 Vieques Air Link crash

1976 ◄ ► 1978

JAL Group

International

Japan Airlines

Regional

LCC

Former

History

JAL accidents and incidents	Flight 301 (1952) Flight 2 (1968) Flight 351 (1970) Flight 471 (1972) Flight 472 (1972) Flight 446 (1972) Flight 404 (1973) Food poisoning incident (1975) Flight 1045 (1977) Flight 715 (1977) Flight 472 (1977) Flight 350 (1982) Flight 792 (1982) Flight 123 (1985) Flight 1628 incident (1986) Flight 46E (1993) Flights 907 and 958 (2001) Flight 516 (2024)

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Kazuo Inamori

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in Malaysia
1970s	Gubir shootdown (April 1976) Sabah Air GAF Nomad crash (June 1976) Japan Air Lines Flight 715 (September 1977) Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 (December 1977)
1980s	Malaysian Airline System Flight 684 (December 1983) Flying Tiger Line Flight 066 (February 1989)
1990s	Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133 (September 1995) Royal Brunei Airlines Flight 839 (September 1997)
2010s	Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (March 2014)
2020s	Elmina plane crash (August 2023) Lumut mid-air collision (April 2024)

Categories:

Aircraft

Accident

Investigation

See also

References

External links