US89

lornajarrettblanchard March 5, 1966

–124 (89 US). AP. “American Victims Named…Mt. Fuji…” Philadelphia Inquirer, 3-6-1966, p6.
–124 (89 US). AP. “Fuji’s Freak Winds Tore at Death Jet.” Independent Press Telegram, 3-6-1966, p1.
–124 Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation. “Saturday 5 March 1966.”
–124 (89 US). NYT. “All on Plane Are Dead in Crash into Japan’s Fuji…” 3-6-1966, p. 1.
–124 (89 US). UPI. “Airline Lists Passengers…Mt. Fuji Crash.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 3-6-1966, p3.

–75 US execs. and wives. Faith. Black Box: Why Air Safety Is No Accident. 1996, p. 130.

–19 California residents. AP. “American Victims Named…” Philadelphia Inquirer, 3-6-1966, p6.
–17 California residents. Independent Press Telegram, Long Beach, CA. “Torrance Women…”

Narrative Information

Aviation Safety Network: “BOAC Flight 911 was a scheduled service from San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) via Honolulu (HNL) and Tokyo (HND)….

“At 13:42 hours [from Fukuoka, where the place had been diverted] the crew contacted ATC requesting permission to start the engines and clearance for a VMC climb via Fuji-Rebel-Kushimoto. The aircraft left the ramp at 13:50. It was instructed to make “a right turn after take-off”, and departed Tokyo Airport at 13:58. After takeoff the aircraft flew over Gotemba City on a heading of approximately 298 deg at an altitude of approximately 4900 m and indicated airspeed of 320 to 370 knots. The aircraft, trailing white vapor, then suddenly lost altitude over the Takigahara area, and parts of the aircraft began to break away over Tsuchiyadai and Ichirimatsu. Finally over Tarobo at an altitude of approx. 2000 m, the forward fuselage broke away. The mid-aft fuselage together with the wing, making a slow flat spin to the right, crashed into a forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. The forward fuselage crashed into the forest approx. 300 m to the west of the above site and caught fire.

“Probable Cause: The aircraft suddenly encountered abnormally severe turbulence over Gotemba City which imposed a gust load considerably in excess of the design limit.’” (Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation. “Saturday 5 March 1966.”)

Faith: “….The aircraft was not fitted with a CVR [cockpit voice recorder], and the fire after the crash was so severe that the FDR [flight data recorder] was destroyed. Miraculously, an 8mm cine-camera was recovered and the film showed something of what had happened. The wind was blowing hard from the Asian mainland to the west of Japan, and the air was clear and dry,, giving unusually good visibility, and, less happily, what Macarthur Job calls ‘mountain wave’ systems,

A disturbance of the airstream broadly analogous to that of a river flowing over a rocky bed, the ripples and ‘breakers’ on the surface of the water corresponding to the standing waves and turbulence found in the airstream above mountainous terrain. The higher the mountains and the faster the airflow over them, the greater the resulting air disturbance. The worst turbulence in such conditions is found in a ‘standing rotor’, a highly agitated body of air rotating about a horizontal axis downwind from and parallel to the mountain ridge producing the air disturbance.

“The pilot…had inadvertently exposed his plane to the worst of the conditions…He hit ‘an unseen cauldron of fiercely boiling air – the vicious rotor zone of eh severe atmospheric turbulence the 70 knot wind was creating in the lee of the 12,000ft mountain…The shock would have felt something like colliding with an invisible wall…in this case sufficient to immediately snap off the tail fin, together with all four engines in their mountings beneath the wind.’” (Faith, Nicholas. Black Box: Why Air Safety Is No Accident. London: Boxtree, 1996, p. 130.)

Newspaper

March 6: “Gotemba, Japan, Sunday (AP) – A British jetliner with 124 persons – at least 89 of them Americans – broke up in the freakish air over Mt. Fuji Saturday and fluttered like a leaf down to disaster on the sacred mount’s slopes.

“Aviation experts, probing the wreckage, said today freak air currents and sudden severe winds may have ripped the British Overseas Airways Corp. Boeing 707 apart minutes after takeoff from Tokyo’s International Airport.

“Japanese soldiers working under a full, predawn moon carried down the bodies of all 124 victims and placed them in wooden coffins in a Buddhist temple in Gotemba, 70 miles south of Tokyo.

“Among the Americans were 75 persons on an Asian tour sponsored by the Thermo King Corp., of Minneapolis, Minn., a refrigeration equipment firm. Three top company officials and many of the firm’s key dealers in the United States and their wives were among the dead. There was Charles Galbo, 52, of Cheektowaga, N.Y., who told a friend back home before he left: ‘I don’t think I’ll see you anymore.’

“Japanese witnesses said they saw the plane break apart, then swirl down like a leaf, trailing fire and white smoke, its wreckage scattered over a wide area on the rugged slopes and set fire to trees and brush in some places.

“It was Japan’s second major air disaster within 19 hours and the third in a month. In history’s worst commercial air disaster involving a single plane, 133 persons perished in a Japanese Boeing 727 jetliner that plunged into Tokyo Bay Feb. 4.

“Ironically, as the doomed BOAC jet taxied out for takeoff Saturday afternoon it passed the wreckage at Haneda Airport of a Canadian Pacific DC8 jetliner that crashed while landing in a fog Friday night, killing 64 of 72 persons on board….

“Just minutes after the BOAC 707 took off at 1:58 p.m. for Hong Kong en route to London, the Tokyo Weather Bureau reported severe winds over Mt. Fuji, noted for the freak air currents swirling around its 12,389-foot, snow-draped peak.

“At noon, the Weather Bureau said the winds at Mt. Fuji were a sustained 70 miles an hour and three hours later a sustained 86 miles an hour, with gusts likely to be higher. Officials at the scene said the winds and air currents could have overcome the plane, then braced its fall.

“The plane had a crew of 11. Of the 113 passengers, 106 boarded in Tokyo and the remainder came from San Francisco. Nearly all were bound for Hong Kong, with eight bound for Rangoon, Burma; one for Karachi, Pakistan, and one for London.

“One of those who saw the disaster was Shizuaoka Serizawa, a weather observer near Mt. Fuji. ‘I saw the plane rising perpendicularly and then saw two thirds of one wing tear off,’ he said. ‘Then there were flames, with both segments burning. A saw small dots, which might have been fragments. Then the plane went down.’ A Japanese military cadet said he watched through binoculars as both wings tore from the plane and the body spiraled down. Cho-o Ikeya, a fireman, reported that plane seemed to plunge rapidly at first, then slowed down. ‘It began to sway from side to side, like a leaf,’ he said. ‘The air currents seemed to catch it up.’

“Nearly 1,000 rescue workers struggled through the brushy area to begin bringing out the bodies. Police said many bodies were badly mangled, but were not burned. Apparently the plane did not explode, although it was aflame.

“The soft volcanic ash of Fuji hampered disaster teams. Trucks sank hub deep into the more. Soldiers on foot had slow going….” (Associated Press. “Fuji’s Freak Winds Tore at Death Jet.” Independent Press Telegram, Long Beach, CA. 3-6-1966, p. 1.)

American Victims By State (89)

California: Marian C. Cochran Ben Lomond
Sidney Elmer Cochran “
Reginald Frederick Freestone San Francisco
Bertha Erma Freestone “
Neal K. Hulbert, 34 Eureka
Loca Coyde Jones Torrance
Tori Louis Jones “
Henry H. Kolbo Glendora
Helen H. Kolbo “
Guard Deland Long Pueblo
Clara Lee Long “
John L. Markovich Modesto
Esther R. Markovich “
Phyllis Ann Fischer, 33 Los Angeles
Philip Rosenberg, 52 “
Bascom Flanakin Stanley “
Barbara Stuckey, 33 “
Wilbur G. Williamson Woodland Hills
Doris V. Williamson “
Florida: Mr. Harold Tomas Orlando
Beverly Duke Carter “
James Henry Walker Key Biscayne
Betty Jane Walker “
William C. Weaver Hollywood
June L. Weaver “
Georgia: Henry Clay Sellers Atlanta
Janet Ann Sellers “
Myron G. Peterson, 37 College Park
Illinois: John J. Kimutis East St. Louis
Nellie D. Kimutis “
Lewis Vanderwall Chicago
Evelyn Vanderwall “
Indiana: George F. Ross Indianapolis
Edith F. Ross “
Iowa: Howard C. Maxwell Altoona
Betty Jean Maxwell “
Kansas: Claude Ray Chamberlain Wichita
Iola Faye Chamberlain “
Louisiana Mrs. Philemine D. McDonald New Orleans area
Massachusetts Karol Kawa North Dartmouth
Elsie Ersilia Kawa “
Miss Linda Natalie Lohnes Boston or Milton
Miss Eileen E. Jenkel, 22 Revere
Mrs. Sandra Ellen Sexhus, 26 “
Michigan: Charles M. Heemstra Detroit
Beverly Lucille Heemstra “
Minnesota: Ralph Vincent Kerwin Minneapolis
Helen R. Kerwin “
Ralph William Porter “
Gertrude Margaret Porter “
Murray Leon Goldstein “
Corinne May Goldstein “
Missouri: Ovid Frederic Crouch St. Joseph
Ruby Irene Crouch “
Ralph Silverman Creve Coeur
Mary Silverman “
Billy Clenden Hollenbeck Cape Girardeau
Layeta A. Hollenbeck “
Nevada: Charles Spencer Teal, 28 Las Vegas
New York: John Thomas Buffalo
Charles Galbo Cheektowaga
Joseph H. Richings Derby
Marjorie M. Richings “
Louis Joseph Decarolis Rochester
No. Carolina: Charles Allen Varner Charlotte
Josephine D. Varner “
Ohio: David E. Havlik Columbus
Beverly Ann Havlik “
Ralph Havlik Independence
Marjorie E. Havlik “
Oklahoma: Warren Arthur Oklahoma City
Mary Rose Jackson “
Pennsylvania: David Weiss Philadelphia
Lillian Weiss “
Jack Weiss “
Celia Weiss “
Rhode Island: Walter D. Jannell, Sr. North Smithfield
Marie Evelina Jannell “
Tennessee Mrs. Frances Kay McGregor Memphis
Utah: William George Ligeros Salt Lake City
Wanda Lavon Ligeros “
Washington: Colburn B. Crosby Mercer Island
Jan Crosby “
Karl Peter Heideman Seattle
Marion Luthy Heideman “
Wisconsin: Donald J. Fleming Green Bay
Mabel Ann Fleming “
Robert Edmund Lubbers Milwaukee
Elizabeth Rose Lubbers “

Sources

Associated Press. “Fuji’s Freak Winds Tore at Death Jet.” Independent Press Telegram, Long Beach, CA. 3-6-1966, p. 1. Accessed 3-13-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/independent-press-telegram-mar-06-1966-p-1/

Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation. “Saturday 5 March 1966.” British Overseas Airways Corporation – BOAC, Boeing 707-436. Accessed 3-13-2020 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19660305-1

Faith, Nicholas. Black Box: Why Air Safety Is No Accident. London: Boxtree, 1996.

Independent Press Telegram, Long Beach, CA. “Torrance Women Among Victims of BOAC Disaster.” 3-6-1966, p. 1. Accessed 3-13-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/independent-press-telegram-mar-06-1966-p-1/

New York Times. “All on Plane Are Dead in Crash into Japan’s Fuji; Jetliner Crashes on Mount Fuji after Take-Off from Tokyo Airport. All 124 on Jet are Killed in Crash on Mount Fuji, 89 from U.S. Die…” 3-6-1966, p. 1. Accessed 3-14-2020 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1966/03/06/archives/all-on-plane-are-dead-in-crash-into-japans-fuji-jetliner-crashes-on.html

UPI (United Press International). “Airline Lists Passengers and Crew in Mt. Fuji Crash.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 3-6-1966, p. 3. Accessed 3-14-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-mar-06-1966-p-3/