Although the investigation into the incident, during which the plane caught fire, is still ongoing, experts believe that the successful evacuation was due to modern safety standards and Japan Airlines’ strict safety culture.
“From what I saw on the footage, I was surprised and relieved that everyone got out,” says Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at Britain’s Cranfield University.
“That’s as much impact as any plane has to take. But knowing what I know about this airline and how much effort they put into safety and crew training, the fact that they did such a good job shouldn’t come as a surprise .”
In fact, it was a catastrophic accident nearly 40 years ago that helped Japan Airlines become such a safe airline, he says.
On August 12, 1985, JAL Flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka crashed, killing 520 of the 524 passengers on board, after Boeing technicians – not airline employees – improperly repaired the tail section following an earlier incident.
To this day, it is the worst air disaster in the history of aviation, in which one aircraft was killed.
“Obviously it hit the airline very hard,” says Braithwaite. “In a culture like Japan, they took responsibility as a group and wanted to make sure nothing like that happened again. So when something fails, they look at it as a lesson. There’s room for improvement.”
In 2005, aware that many employees were joining the company with no memory of the accident 20 years earlier, JAL opened a room at its corporate headquarters that displayed parts of the plane’s wreckage, as well as the stories of the crew and passengers.
“The feeling was that we have people coming into our company who don’t know what it’s like when an accident happens. Everyone needs to understand how much effort goes into safety,” says Braithwaite.
Nearly four decades later, the crash still has a deep impact on the company’s mentality, he says.
“They have a very strict culture of standard operating procedures and doing everything the right way. That’s one of the reasons why, in this case, I think the crew seems to have done such a good job,” he says.
While it’s unclear who was to blame for Tuesday’s disaster, Braithwaite says the successful evacuation is “absolutely” a positive for Japan Airlines.
JAL is regularly ranked among the world’s safest airlines in its annual list by Airlineratings.com.
2024-01-03 09:07:00
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