Japan Air Lines Flight 350

Aircraft The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 registered as JA8061. It was manufactured by McDonnell Douglas in 1967 and in its 15 years of service, it had logged 36,955 airframe hours. It was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B engines. Crew The crew consisted of 35-year-old Captain Seiji Katagiri (片桐 清二 Katagiri Seiji), 33-year-old First Officer Yoshifumi Ishikawa, and 48-year-old flight engineer Yoshimi Ozaki. The cause of the crash was traced to Katagiri's deliberate crashing of the plane. ==Flight==

One report states that the captain engaged the inboard engines' thrust-reversers in flight. Another report states that, during descent, Katagiri "cancelled autopilot, pushed his controls forward and retarded the throttles to idle." Ishikawa and Ozaki worked to restrain Katagiri and regain control. Despite their efforts, the DC-8's descent could not be fully arrested and it touched down in shallow water 510 meters (1673 feet) short of the runway. During the crash, the cockpit section of the DC-8 separated from the rest of the fuselage and continued to travel for several meters before coming to a halt. Among the 166 passengers and 8 crew, 24 died. Following the incident, Katagiri, one of the first people to take a rescue boat, told rescuers that he was an office worker to avoid being identified as the captain.{{cite magazine | title = Troubled Pilot | magazine = Time | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922801,00.html?iid=chix-sphere | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080502171229/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922801,00.html?iid=chix-sphere | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2 May 2008 | access-date = 20 April 2007 == Aftermath ==

Katagiri has since been released from psychiatric care. == See also ==