Japan Airlines Flight 715


Japan Airlines Flight 715 was an airplane that crashed in Malaysia on 27 September 1977. It was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, registration JA8051, on a flight from Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan to Changi International Airport in Singapore, with stopovers at Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong and Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Malaysia. There were 69 passengers and 10 crew on board. It was the second deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Malaysia at the time.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Douglas DC-8-62H was released in 1971 and was delivered to Japan Airlines on 23 August. It was registered as JA8051. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan engines.

Accident

Two hours into the flight, air traffic control at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport told flight 715 to start its approach and land on runway 15. The flight crew started their approach, putting the landing gear down and extending the flaps. The aircraft descended below MDA of 750 feet, then at 300 feet it crashed into the side of a hill 4 miles from the airport, near an estate called Ladang Elmina. The aircraft broke on impact and there was no fire.
The accident killed 34 people: 8 of the 10 crew and 26 of the 69 passengers. There were 45 survivors among the passengers and crew, who were taken to a hospital. The remains from the crash can be found in the soil surrounding the estate up until 2011. Most of the land now is being converted to developments.
A memorial was built in the Japanese cemetery in Malaysia.
The crash was the second deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Malaysia until the crash of Malaysian Airline System Flight 653, two months later, with 100 fatalities.

Investigation

The Malaysian Civil Aviation Bureau investigated the accident. At the time of the crash, the weather around the airport was poor and the aircraft was on a VOR approach. The investigation determined that the cause of the accident was the Captain descending below the minimum descent altitude without having the runway in sight, and continuing the descent causing the aircraft to crash before reaching the airport. The flight crew loss of sight of the airport due to bad weather also contributed to the accident. About two months before the accident, the “Crew” section of the flight regulations, which can be called the Constitution of the pilot, was revised, having been added to the fourth principle. "Nikko's constitution," as it was called, is said to have caused this accident. In addition, the first officer did not challenge the Captain for violating the regulations.