Japan Airlines Flight 2

Japan Airlines Flight 2
Accident summary
Date November 22, 1968
Type Pilot error
Site San Francisco Bay, San Mateo County, California, USA
Passengers 96
Crew 11
Injuries 0
Fatalities 0
Survivors 107 (All)
Aircraft type Douglas DC-8-62
Operator Japan Airlines
Tail number JA8032
Flight origin Tokyo International Airport
Destination San Francisco International Airport

Japan Airlines Flight 2 was a flight that was piloted by Captain Kohei Asoh on November 22, 1968.[1] The DC-8 plane was scheduled to land at San Francisco International Airport but due to heavy fog and other factors, Asoh mistakenly landed the plane in the waters of San Francisco Bay, two and a half miles short of the runway.[2][3] None of the 96 passengers or 11 crew were killed or injured in the mishap. The plane was recovered 55 hours after the incident.[4] It was transported to San Francisco International Airport on a barge.[5] United Airlines refurbished the aircraft for service and returned the aircraft to JAL, Mar 31, 1969.[4] The flight is still in operation today and it still flies from Tokyo (Haneda) to San Francisco using a Boeing 777 instead of a Douglas DC8; the flight previously operated from Narita up until October 2010.

Contents

Captain Kohei Asoh

Captain Asoh was a veteran pilot with about 10,000 hours of flight time. During World War II he served as a flight instructor for the Japanese military.[1]

"Asoh defense"

In his 1988 book The Abilene Paradox, author Jerry Harvey said that Asoh, when asked how he had managed to land the aircraft in the bay, replied "Asoh fuck up." Harvey termed this frank acceptance of blame the "Asoh defense", and the story and term have been taken up by a number of other management theorists.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b "Splashdown of the "Shiga"". Check-Six.com. http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Shiga-SFBay.htm. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
  2. ^ The DC-8 that was too young to die
  3. ^ "NTSB Aircraft Accident Report AAR-70-02" (PDF). http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR70-02.pdf. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
  4. ^ a b "Aviation Safety Network Accident Description". Aviation-safety.net. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19681122-0. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
  5. ^ "Flight International 5 Dec 1968". Flight International. December 5, 1968. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1968/1968-1%20-%200018.html. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
  6. ^ Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (Doubleday, 1990) ISBN 0-385-26094-6, p. 301

External links

San Francisco Bay Area portal
Aviation portal
Japan portal