Japanese disaster was linked to turbulence

IT IS extremely rare for turbulence to be so bad that it causes a large passenger airline to crash.

But there have been instances, including a case involving a BOAC (later British Airways) Boeing 707 near Mount Fuji in Japan.

On a flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong, the plane ran into extreme turbulence and crashed near the mountain in March 1966.

All 113 passengers and 11 crew on board were killed and the subsequent inquiry found the probable was that “the aircraft suddenly encountered abnormally severe turbulence which imposed a gust load considerably in excess of the design limit”.

David Kaminski-Morrow, European editor of the internet news service Air Transport Intelligence, said: “The Tokyo incident shows that these things can happen, but you don’t normally get anything that brings an airliner down.”

He went on: “Aircraft do have radar which effectively ‘sniffs out’ thunderstorms, but it is a little more difficult to track down what is known as clear-air turbulence.

“There have been plenty of instances of passengers and flight attendants who have not been wearing seatbelts being bounced up and down and injured when planes have run into clear-air turbulence.”

Mr Kaminski-Morrow said as far as encountering thunderstorms was concerned, planes were designed to withstand lightning strikes.