JAL BOEING CRASH CAUSED BY FAULTY REPAIRS-REPORT
Faulty repair work by The Boeing Company
<BA.N> was a contributary cause to a Japan Air Lines Co Ltd
<JAPN.Y> 747 crash on August 12, 1985, that killed 520 people,
the final draft of a Ministry of Transport report says.
    There were only four survivors when the aircraft crashed
into a mountain north of Tokyo.
    The report said inadequate inspection of the aircraft by
Japanese inspectors after the repairs was another factor in the
crash. The crew were cleared of any responsibility for the
disaster.
    The report, which was sent on March 23 to the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board for comment, should be released in
late May. Under an international convention the draft must be
submitted for final comments to the relevant authorities.
    Boeing spokesmen were unavailable for comment. On April 4,
a Boeing spokesman at the firm's headquarters said the company
would probably make no comment on the Japanese investigation
team's report until it was officially released.
    On September 6, 1985, Boeing said in a statement that the
1978 repairs it had undertaken were faulty. This statement did
not, however, connect the faulty repairs with the cause of the
crash.
 Reuter
