Japan Air Lines Flight 472 (1972)

For the hijacking of Flight 472 in 1977, see Japan Air Lines Flight 472 (1977).

Japan Air Lines Flight 472 was a flight from London to Tokyo via Frankfurt, Rome, Beirut, Tehran, Bombay, Bangkok and Hong Kong. On September 24, 1972, the flight landed at Juhu Aerodrome near Bombay, India instead of the city's much larger Santacruz Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport) and overran the runway, resulting in the aircraft being written off after being damaged beyond economic repair.

Japan Air Lines Flight 472

JA8013, the aircraft involved in the accident in 1969, with a previous livery
Accident
Date	24 September 1972 (1972-09-24)
Summary	Runway excursion due to pilot error
Site	Juhu Aerodrome, Bombay, India 19°05′57″N 72°50′20″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-8-53
Aircraft name	Haruna
Operator	Japan Air Lines
IATA flight No.	JL472
ICAO flight No.	JAL472
Call sign	JAPAN AIR 472
Registration	JA8013
Flight origin	London Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Stopover	Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
1st stopover	Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, Rome, Italy
2nd stopover	Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, Beirut, Lebanon
3rd stopover	Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran, Iran
4th stopover	Santacruz Airport, Bombay, India
5th stopover	Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
Last stopover	Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong
Destination	Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan
Occupants	122
Passengers	108
Crew	14
Fatalities	0
Injuries	11
Survivors	122

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Douglas DC-8-53, registration JA8013. The aircraft was c/n 45681. It had first flown in 1964.

Accident

The flight departed London 20 minutes late. By the time it left Tehran for Bombay, it was 80 minutes behind schedule. The crew planned to execute an ILS approach to Santacruz Airport, Bombay. However, the air traffic controller (ATC) asked the crew, "Can you see the runway?", to which they replied, "Yes, we can". Since the weather was good around the airport that day, the ATC instructed, "VFR approach please".

After this, Flight 472 flew past Runway 09 on the west side of Santacruz Airport while descending, and executed a 360-degree turn in order to approach again from the west and land. However, when it did land at 06:50 local time (01:20 UTC), it was in fact landing on Runway 08 of Juhu Aerodrome. Juhu is 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi; 2.0 nmi) west of Santacruz, and for use by small aircraft only. Runway 08 of Juhu was only 1,143 metres (3,750 ft) long, too short for the large aircraft operating Flight 472.

After deploying the thrust reversers, the captain realized the mistake and immediately deployed spoilers and applied maximum braking power, but an overrun was inevitable. The DC-8 overshot the runway, breaking off both engines on the port wing, and damaging the front and main landing gear, causing the nose of the aircraft to dive into the ground. The wreckage caught fire, but the fire was soon put out by fire extinguishers.

At the time of the accident, there were 14 crew and 108 passengers on board. The aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair. 2 cockpit crew and 9 passengers (all non-Japanese) were reported injured. It was the second Japan Airlines accident in India, coming just two months after the fatal crash of Japan Air Lines Flight 471 in Delhi.

Cause

The accident was attributed to pilot error. However, the Indian authorities were also blamed for operating an airport for small aircraft so close to Santacruz, causing confusion (see similar incidents below). Another factor was that during the 360-degree turn Flight 472 faced the sun and morning mist, and the cockpit crew lost sight of the runway. When they suddenly saw the runway of Juhu Aerodrome, they mistook it for the runway of Santacruz, and landed on it.

See also

• 1953 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) de Havilland Comet G-ALYR crash
• 2006 Poznań-Krzesiny military airbase incidents.
• 2019 Saha Airlines Boeing 707 crash