JAPAN REPORT SAYS FAULTY REPAIRS CAUSED JAL CRASH
Faulty repairs and inadequate inspection
caused the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines Co Ltd <JAPN.T> (JAL)
Boeing 747 which killed 520 people, the Japanese government
said in a final official report.
    The clear cause of the crash was faulty repair work by the
Boeing Co <BA>, said Shun Takeda, the ministry of transport
official leading the accident investigation committee.
    But the report also criticised the ministry's inspectors
for failing to carry out a full check of the repairs before
signing the clearance sheet.
    The aircraft hit Mount Osutaka, north of Tokyo, on August
12, 1985, after a bulkhead separating the pressurised cabin
from the unpressurised tail suddenly burst, fracturing key
navigation systems. Only four people survived.
    A Japan Air Lines spokesman declined comment on the report.
Boeing is expected to release a statement later today.
    The report cleared the JAL crew of all responsibility.
    In a separate set of recommendations, the investigators
said large aircraft operating in Japan should have fail-safe
systems, but did not say how this should be done.
    A press statement by a group of lawyers representing
victims of the crash criticised the report for not dealing in
greater depth with the fail-safe aspect.
    The lawyers said Boeing had showed it believed the crash
was due to design defects by specifying two design
modifications to prevent a recurrence in a memorandum filed in
King County, Washington, Superior Court last March 24.
    They said similar official recommendations for fail-safe
systems following two air disasters involving DC-10 aircraft,
near Paris in 1974 and at Chicago in 1979, had been rejected
after objections from aircraft manufacturers.
    The government investigators asked the ministry to
formulate concrete guidelines for its inspectors. An internal
ministry memo earlier this year complained that inspectors were
left too much on their own when making aircraft checks.
    A Boeing team made repairs to the aircraft's aft bulkhead
under JAL supervision, and Transport Ministry inspectors
approved the repairs without actually seeing them, today's
report said.
    The inspectors were unable to check Boeing's work because
the part repaired had been covered by a seal, the report said.
    Over time, cabin pressurisation speeded up the process of
metal fatigue in the repaired bulkhead.
    Boeing issued an official statement on September 6, 1985,
saying the 1978 repairs it had carried out were faulty. It did
not link them with the crash.
 REUTER
