The flight departed London 20 minutes late. By the time it left Tehran for Bombay, it was 80 minutes behind schedule. The crew planned to execute an
ILS approach to Santacruz Airport, Bombay. However, the
air traffic controller (ATC) asked the crew, "Can you see the runway?", to which they replied, "Yes, we can". Since the weather was good around the airport that day, the ATC instructed, "
VFR approach please". After this, Flight 472 flew past Runway 09 on the west side of Santacruz Airport while descending, and executed a 360-degree turn in order to approach again from the west and land. However, when it did land at 06:50
local time (01:20
UTC), it was in fact landing on Runway 08 of Juhu Aerodrome. Juhu is west of Santacruz, and for use by small aircraft only. Runway 08 of Juhu was only long, too short for the large aircraft operating Flight 472. After deploying the
thrust reversers, the captain realized the mistake and immediately deployed
spoilers and applied maximum braking power, but an overrun was inevitable. The DC-8 overshot the runway, breaking off both engines on the
port wing, and damaging the front and main
landing gear, causing the nose of the aircraft to dive into the ground. The wreckage caught fire, but the fire was soon put out by fire extinguishers. At the time of the accident, there were 14 crew and 108 passengers on board. The aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair. 2 cockpit crew and 9 passengers (all non-Japanese) were reported injured. It was the second Japan Airlines accident in India, coming just two months after the fatal crash of
Japan Air Lines Flight 471 in
Delhi. ==Cause==