August 1985 - The Worst Month For Air Disasters - BBC News

August 1985: The worst month for air disasters - BBC News
1 of 11
News
Sport
Weather
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33931693
iPlayer
TV
Radio
More
Find local news

Home
UK
World
Business
Politics
Tech
Science
Health
Magazine
August 1985: The worst month for air

disasters
By Jon Kelly
BBC News Magazine
18 August 2015
Magazine
August 1985 witnessed more passenger

and crew deaths on commercial airlines
than any other month. What made it so
deadly and what changed as a result?
In today's
Magazine
My Lariam dreams
There are many grim landmarks in the

18/08/2015 15:15
2 of 11
history of aviation. One in particular stands

out.
Three decades ago, 720 travellers and crew
lost their lives on board commercial aircraft
in a single month - more than in any other
before or since.
The US love affair with

food on a stick
Super, hyper, over or
uber?
Sofia grasses over tram
lines
The deaths occurred in four separate

accidents in August 1985. Each disaster
had quite different causes. The aircraft involved ranged from a 747
with hundreds on board to a tiny twin engine turboprop carrying just
eight people.
There was Japan Air Lines flight 123, the worst single-aircraft
accident in history, in which 520 of 524 on board were killed. A further
137 died when Delta flight 191 flew into heavy winds as it
approached Dallas-Fort Worth International. A fire on board British
Airtours flight 28M at Manchester Airport led to 55 deaths. And all
those on board the smallest aircraft, Bar Harbor Airlines flight 1808,
lost their lives as it flew into a small airport in Maine, USA.
Each, in their own way, had a lasting legacy, whether in the memories
of those left bereaved or in changes in technology and procedure
introduced as a direct result.
The worst death toll was on Japan Air Lines Flight 123, a Boeing 747,
which was en route from Tokyo to Osaka on 12 August 1985 when
18/08/2015 15:15
3 of 11
the airtight bulkhead between its cabin and tail tore open.
The change in pressure blew off the vertical stabiliser, or tail fin. It
also destroyed the hydraulic systems. The plane lurched up and
down.
"The crew heroically fought for over half an hour," says Graham
Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at
Cranfield University. But by the time the aircraft plunged to 13,500ft
they reported that they had lost control.
The 747 began its final descent. "They were over some pretty
mountainous terrain," says Braithwaite. Altitude dropped rapidly. A
wing then clipped a ridge before the aircraft hit a second ridge,
flipped over and came to rest on its back.
It had been 32 minutes since the explosive decompression, enough

time for some passengers to write their families farewell notes.
Investigators concluded that the crash was caused by a faulty repair
job after the plane's tail struck the runway seven years previously.
The damage should have been fixed using a single plate and three
rows of rivets. But Boeing engineers used two separate plates, one
with two rows of rivets and another with one. Japan Air Lines failed to
detect the fault.
For Japan, the crash was deeply traumatic. "The effect was
profound," says Braithwaite. Extraordinarily, JAL opened a museum
dedicated to the disaster in April 2006. It includes wreckage from the
aircraft, letters written by passengers to loved ones and an aviation
safety library. All airline staff are obliged to visit it.
18/08/2015 15:15
4 of 11
There were suggestions that more passengers might potentially have

survived if the Japanese authorities had sent rescuers to the crash
site sooner, or if they had accepted an offer of help from a nearby
United States Air Force base.
And shortly after the disaster JAL maintenance official Hiroo
Tominaga killed himself, reportedly leaving a note saying: "I am
atoning with my death."
But the accident is rare among major air disasters in that it can be
attributed to a single and completely avoidable mechanical fault. With
the blame lying with the work of the engineers and JAL's inspection
procedures, there were no wider consequences for the air industry.
David Learmount, safety editor at Flight Global, says the botched
repair "was a massive error that should never have occurred". In
terms of technology and procedure "there was no real legacy".
It was quite a different matter with the disaster at Manchester Airport
10 days later. This proved to be a defining event in the history of
aviation safety.
As the charter flight to Corfu prepared for take-off, a punctured wing
fuel tank caused a huge ball of fire to ignite. The pilots heard a thump
and aborted take-off, but did not realise at first that the blaze was
under way. They steered the aircraft into a taxiway upwind of the fire,
carrying the flames towards the passengers in the fuselage.
18/08/2015 15:15
5 of 11
Nearly all those who died did so as a result of smoke inhalation: "The
survivors were shocked at how quickly it became impossible to
breathe," says Braithwaite. Investigators had found the evacuation
had been slowed down because the gap between the seats leading
to the over-wing exits was too narrow, and the hatch itself was too
difficult to remove.
Accounts of a terrifying crash
"Passengers were shouting: 'Fire! fire!' You're having a hundred

thoughts. Where's your family? How were they ever going to get
out?"
John Beardmore was one of the survivors of the British Airtours flight
28M, which burst into flames on Manchester Airport runway on 22
August 1985, killing 55 people. He recalled the terrifying experience
of trying to escape the plane.
The 1985 British Airtours disaster
As a result, there were a series of changes to commercial aircraft

design focused on increasing survivability. The exit row was widened
and fire-blocking seat covers, floor lighting, fire-resistant ceiling and
wall panels and revised evacuation rules were all introduced.
18/08/2015 15:15
6 of 11
The routine for pilots in the event of runway emergencies was

radically changed - they must now pull up as quickly as possible,
taking account of wind direction.
SCISAFE, a campaign group set up by victims' relatives, also
campaigned for the introduction of passenger smoke hoods but these
have not been adopted.
"There has to be something to justify 55 people losing their lives,"
says William Beckett, whose 18-year-old daughter Sarah died on the
Manchester runway. It was her first time on board an aeroplane. She
had chosen to sit at the back because the four survivors of Japan Air
Lines Flight 123 had been seated at the rear.
There were also changes introduced as a result of the Delta flight
191 crash in Texas on 2 August. The plane was coming in for landing
when it hit a microburst - a small-scale downburst, or column of
sinking air.
The aircraft crashed north of the runway and careered along the
ground into a highway, killing a driver, before hitting two water tanks
and bursting into flames. Of 163 passengers and crew, only 27
survived.
An investigation found that, although the pilot had been experienced,
there was a lack of training when it came to dealing with microbursts.
The radar on board the aircraft was able to detect thunderstorms but
not downbursts of this kind.
"One of the things that was not understood at the time was the
structure of a downburst," says Learmount.
"That was understood within a very short period of time. That was
coincidence but they very, very quickly developed a windshear
warning system for the pilots." The US Federal Aviation
Administration soon required all commercial aircraft to install these.
August 1985's final accident came when Bar Harbor Airlines flight
1808 struck short of the runway at Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport
in Maine, USA, and crashed. All six passengers and two crew
members were killed.
18/08/2015 15:15
7 of 11
American schoolgirl Samantha Smith was invited by Yuri Andropov to visit the USSR in
1983
The crash of a such a small aircraft would not normally have

attracted much attention, but one of the passengers was 13-year-old
Samantha Smith, who had attracted widespread media attention
three years previously when she wrote to Soviet premier Yuri
Andropov pleading for peace. She had subsequently made a widely
publicised tour of the USSR and acted in an American TV drama.
In the Soviet Union there was speculation of foul play, but an
investigation found no evidence of this. It concluded that there had
been a ground radar failure and the pilots had been inexperienced
fliers on what was a rainy night. Both US President Ronald Reagan
and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sent their condolences.
It was a sad end to a tragic month. But according to Learmount it was
far less shocking than it would be today, due to the far greater
prevalence of airline accidents in the mid-1980s.
"Aviation was different then," says Learmount. "It's infinitely more
sophisticated now. Safety has been absolutely transformed. It would
be very difficult for people now to understand what it felt like. Crashes
were regular things."
Since the 1990s the number of annual aviation fatalities has been on
a downward trend - notwithstanding the spike in 2014, which saw two
disasters involving Malaysia Airlines planes - the disappearance of
18/08/2015 15:15
8 of 11
MH370 and the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine - as well
as the disappearance of an Air Asia flight to Singapore.
That improved safety record can be attributed, in part, to the changes
introduced in the wake of August 1985.
More from the Magazine
Over the course of eight days in the summer of 2014, three

passenger planes were lost in mid-flight. A cluster of disasters so
close together may seem an unlikely coincidence but is it?
How odd is a cluster of plane crashes?
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get

articles sent to your inbox.
Share this story About sharing
In today's Magazine
My Lariam dreams
18/08/2015 15:15
9 of 11
18 August 2015
The US love affair with food on a stick

18 August 2015
From the Monitor

Super, hyper, over or uber?
18 August 2015
News from Elsewhere

Sofia grasses over tram lines
18 August 2015
Magazine
My Lariam dreams
18 August 2015 Magazine
The US love affair with

food on a stick
Waiting for the ship that

could save a man's life
Top Stories
CCTV 'shows Bangkok bomb
suspect'
Video footage emerges showing a man
leaving a backpack inside the Bangkok
shrine where a bomb exploded on Monday,
killing at least 20 people.
UK inflation rate rises to 0.1%

4 hours ago
Battle of Britain anniversary marked

14 minutes ago
37 minutes ago
Features
18/08/2015 15:15
10 of 11
Fatal flaws
Fried butter
Escape from IS
The single month with four air

disasters
...and 19 other unlikely foods

Americans eat on a stick
How an Iraqi businessman

secures the release of
enslaved Yazidis
4:29
Waste cuisine
Strange side-effects
'Don't come here'
The French law that makes

supermarkets give food away
The odd dreams people get

when on malaria drug Lariam
Advice from a Syrian refugee in

Sweden
3:11
The Vocabularist
'I take no nonsense'
From pizza to cocktails
Why do people use the word

'super' so much?
Meet the UK's first

wheelchair-using football
referee
How data crunching can pep

up your local restaurant
Most Popular
Read
Watched
Twitter goes nuts over PM's crisps
CCTV 'shows Bangkok bomb

suspect'
Germany 'to expect 750,000

refugees'
The messy theories behind the Thai

bomb
The US love affair with food on a

stick
Battle of Britain anniversary marked
8
18/08/2015 15:15
11 of 11
Briton killed in Bangkok bombing
Emmerdale star Kitty McGeever dies
Australia robber makes daring

escape
Burnham hits back at Cooper quit call
9
10
BBC News Services

On your mobile
On your
connected TV
Get news alerts
Contact BBC
News
Explore the BBC

News
Weather
TV
CBBC
Arts
Food
Bitesize
Earth
Travel
Sport
iPlayer
Radio
CBeebies
Make It Digital
iWonder
Music
Local
Terms of Use
About the BBC
Privacy Policy
Cookies
Accessibility Help
Parental Guidance
Contact the BBC
Copyright 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to
external linking.
18/08/2015 15:15

August 1985 - The Worst Month For Air Disasters - BBC News

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

August 1985 - The Worst Month For Air Disasters - BBC News

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

August 1985: The worst month for air disasters - BBC News

Find local news

August 1985: The worst month for air

August 1985 witnessed more passenger

There are many grim landmarks in the

history of aviation. One in particular stands

The US love affair with

The deaths occurred in four separate

It had been 32 minutes since the explosive decompression, enough

There were suggestions that more passengers might potentially have

Accounts of a terrifying crash

"Passengers were shouting: 'Fire! fire!' You're having a hundred

As a result, there were a series of changes to commercial aircraft

The routine for pilots in the event of runway emergencies was

The crash of a such a small aircraft would not normally have

More from the Magazine

Over the course of eight days in the summer of 2014, three

Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get

Share this story About sharing

The US love affair with food on a stick

From the Monitor

News from Elsewhere

The US love affair with

Waiting for the ship that

UK inflation rate rises to 0.1%

Battle of Britain anniversary marked

The single month with four air

...and 19 other unlikely foods

How an Iraqi businessman

'Don't come here'

The French law that makes

The odd dreams people get

Advice from a Syrian refugee in

'I take no nonsense'

From pizza to cocktails

Why do people use the word

Meet the UK's first

How data crunching can pep

Twitter goes nuts over PM's crisps

CCTV 'shows Bangkok bomb

Germany 'to expect 750,000

The messy theories behind the Thai

The US love affair with food on a

Battle of Britain anniversary marked

Briton killed in Bangkok bombing

Emmerdale star Kitty McGeever dies

Australia robber makes daring

Burnham hits back at Cooper quit call

BBC News Services

Get news alerts

Explore the BBC

About the BBC

Contact the BBC

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen