All Nippon Airways Flight 58

All Nippon Airways Flight 58
Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-86

Accident
Date	30 July 1971
Summary	Mid-air collision
Site	near Shizukuishi, Japan
Total fatalities	162 (all onboard Flight 58)
Total injuries	1
Total survivors	1
First aircraft
Type	Boeing 727-281
Operator	All Nippon Airways
Registration	JA8329disaster
Passengers	155
Crew	7
Survivors	0
Second aircraft
Type	North American F-86
Operator	JASDF
Registration	92-7932
Passengers	0
Crew	1
Survivors	1

All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 58 was a Boeing 727-281 airliner, JA8329, that collided with a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) F-86F fighter jet, 92-7932, while en route from Chitose Airport in Sapporo to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) in Tokyo on 30 July 1971 at 2:04 local time. All 162 of those on board the Boeing 727 died. The plane also carried Donn M. Carpenter of Miami, Florida who was the flight engineer and the only American aboard. The pilot and sole occupant of the F-86, a trainee with the JASDF, ejected from his aircraft shortly before the collision and survived. The collision occurred over Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture.

Flight 58 had just departed Sapporo and was flying at an altitude of FL280. Meanwhile, a 22-year-old JASDF trainee, Yoshimi Ichikawa (市川良美, Ichikawa Yoshimi), and his instructor, Captain Tamotsu Kuma (隈太茂津, Kuma Tamotsu), were practicing maneuvers in their F-86 fighters. Ichikawa, who had not been watching for traffic, was instructed to break away from the 727 as it approached, but he could not avoid the accident. Instead, he ejected. The leading edge of the F-86 struck the left horizontal stabilizer of the Boeing, causing the passenger jet to disintegrate in mid-air and crash near the town of Shizukuishi.

The two planes collided at 26,000 feet over Morioka, in the northern part of the main Japanese island of Honshū, 275 miles north of Tokyo. The F-86 jet fighter plunged into a rice paddy, while the wreckage of the three-engine airliner was spread over a wide area.

Most of the passengers came from Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture and were returning from a trip to Hokkaido. Of the passengers, 125 were in a tour group made up of members of a society for relatives of Japanese servicemen killed in World War II.

Sgt. Ichikawa, the 22-year-old pilot, had only 21 hours of training in the fighter. The police said their investigation indicated the fighter had entered the corridor reserved for commercial airliners and later arrested Ichikawa, charging him with "professional negligence."

Saburo Kawanishi, 41, the pilot of the jetliner, had more than 8,000 hours of flying experience. He was able to get off a brief radio message between the time of the collision and the crash.

At the time, it was the deadliest air disaster in history. The deadliest previous aviation toll was in the crash of a Viasa Flight 742 on March 16, 1969, into a crowded section of Maracaibo, killing 155 — 84 on the plane and 71 on the ground.

References

• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network