the flight, there s a problem. they were in the middle 20,000 feet, which is where airplanes experience the most pressure on the vessel itself. at that point they received a door warning that a door was ajar which turned out not to be the case. we ve already seen how an airplane s fuselage expands as the plane goes up and contracts as the plane comes down. the altitude with the greatest pressure differential between the pressurized inside of an aircraft and the unpressurized atmosphere outside is right around 24,000 feet. that s where jal 123 experiences an explosive shock. a massive decompression for reasons that they didn t know. but the crew did not realize the amount of damage they had sustained until very quickly, the airplane became less and less controllable to the point it was no longer controllable at all. that would be a nightmare scenario for a pilot. what the pilot s don t know
as a maintainer it pains me to say this, but i think we re finding more and more where it is repair related. there were at least two suicides in the wake of this incident. a japan airlines employee who was working with victims families and an inspection engineer who issued a certificate of airworthiness for the doomed plane after the 1978 tail strike. to this day, jal 123 remains the deadliest single aircraft accident in the history of aviation. we ve seen the disastrous results of airplanes that are not properly repaired, maintained or inspected. japan airlines flight 123, american flight 191, aloha flight 243. we ve also seen what can happen when a plane has a design flaw, as in the case of united flight 811. but those flights are the exception, not the rule. every day 3 million passengers do land safely.
cycles. by the date of the crash, this particular 747 has already gone more than 12,000 cycles. the repair is inspected but because of a sealant has been used over the gap in the bulkhead, cracks developing between the rivets are not found. this plane is a ticking time bomb. unfortunately the repair was insufficient and cracks started to develop over the service life after the airplane was returned into passenger use. there was no proper inspection procedure as well. reporter: as jal 123 passes through 24,000 foot, cracks begin to connect between the rift leading the bulkhead to fail cat strofcally. it is a structural failure due not to bad airplane design but to a faulty repair and inadequate oversight. when we look back at structural failures how common is it that it is repair related
japan airlines flight 123, it is a tragedy with many clues tonight but no hard answers yet. it takes rescuers half of a day to get to the remote spot where japan airlines, jal flight 123, has slammed into a mountain northwest of tokyo. investigators finally reach the crash site, they begin combing the wreckage for clues. miraculously they find something had didn t expect. two women and two young girls survived. the four people that survived the accident were seated in the very aft section of the airplane. when the airplane struck the ground the tail section broke from the main section of the fuselage. and was thrown well away from the impact point. he hoped his sister would be among the survivors. sadly, as he discovered at a makeshift morgue, that was not
or maintenance related? it pain meese to say this but i think we are finding more and more where it is repair related. there were at least two suicides in the wake of the incident. japan airlines employee who was working with victims families and an inspection engineer who issued a certificate of air worthyness for the doomed plane a of the 1978 tail strike. to this day, jal 123 remains the deadliest single aircraft accident in the history of aviation. we have seen the disastrous results of airplanes not properly repaired, maintained or inspected. japan airline flight 123, american flight 191, aloha, flight 243. we have also seen what can happen when a plane has a design flaw as in the case of united plight 811. but those flights are the exception. not the rule. every day 3 million passengers