Japan Air Lines Flight 471 was a Japan Air Lines international flight from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, to Palam International Airport (now Indira Gandhi International Airport) in New Delhi, India. On 14 June 1972 the Douglas DC-8 operating the flight, registered JA8012, crashed short of the New Delhi airport, killing 86 of the 89 occupants: 10 of 11 crew members, and 76 of 78 passengers. Four people on the ground were also killed.
Passengers Sixteen of the dead were Americans. Brazilian actress Leila Diniz was also among those killed, as was the sole Indian passenger on the flight,Indian Express edition of 14 06 1972 Dr. K.K.P. Narasinga Rao, a senior official of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
An article in The Age stated the following nationalities: 17 from Victoria in Australia, 10 each from Japan and the United States, five from each from Italy and Sweden, three from West Germany, two each from France and Indonesia, and one each from Brazil, India, the Netherlands, and Norway. 31 travellers had booked their travel from Australia or New Zealand. - The JAL coverage having the nationality breakdown is on page 4. The Hansard of the Japanese Diet stated that 10 Japanese nationals were passengers, with all but two first boarding in Tokyo and the remainder boarding in Hong Kong.Japanese Hansard, page 2. Text: "乗客は七十八名。うち日本人が十名でございま す。その十名のうち八名は東京から乗られた方 で、あとの二名は香港から乗られた方でございま す。" (in the original document the text is vertical, then right to left.)
One of the cabin attendants killed in the crash was the sister of San'yūtei Enraku V.
Sequence of events The flight was on the Bangkok-New Delhi portion of its Tokyo-London route when the accident occurred. The flight took off from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok at 11:21 UTC en route to New Delhi. At 14:43 UTC, the flight was given clearance for a straight-in ILS approach to runway 28. The plane crashed into the banks of the Yamuna River not long after the 23 mile (43 km) report from the DME.
Cause The exact cause of the accident remains disputed. Investigators representing Japan pointed to the possibility of a false glide path signal causing the crash. Indian investigators claimed the crash was caused by pilot error, specifically the captain ignoring instrument indications and not having sight of the runway (the first officer was flying the approach to New Delhi).
See also
Indian Airlines Flight 440, another aviation disaster that took place at Palam less than a year after Japan Air Lines Flight 471. Cathay Pacific Flight 700Z, a crash in the same continent that happened shortly after
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