Accident
On November 28, 1972, Japan Airlines Flight 446, operated by JA8040(a DC-8-62), departed from Copenhagen Airport, Denmark bound for Tokyo International Airport, Japan with an intermediate stop at Sheremetyevo International Airport. At 7:51PM Moscow time (1:51AM, Nov 29 for Tokyo time), the flight took off from Sheremetyevo, reached an altitude of 100m, stalled, and crashed 150m beyond the runway end, 30 seconds after leaving the ground.
On board were 6 flight crew (3 of them backup crew), 7 cabin crew, 1 employee of Japan Airlines, and 62 passengers (of whom 52 were Japanese). All except for 5 flight attendants and 9 passengers (of whom 8 were Japanese, the other was E Bruce Smith of New Zealand) perished, which made 62 fatalities. All survivors were seated near first class seats located in the front section of the fuselage, suffering severe injuries.
The aircraft involved, JA8040, was delivered on July 1969, and written off less than 3.5 years after its delivery, thus being the most short-lived among Japan Airlines' DC-8s. This aircraft was noted for previous involvement in several major incidents: with the nickname Hida, it was used to carry passengers involved in the hijack of Japan Airlines Flight 351 back to Japan in April 1970; on November 6, 1972, 22 days before the crash, this plane was offered to the hijackers of the JA351 hijack in response to their demand to flee to Cuba, although they were ultimately arrested at Haneda Airport.
This was the second fatal accident within the same calendar year for Japan Airlines, following Japan Airlines Flight 471 in June.
Read more about this topic: Japan Airlines Flight 446
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