Ntsb Aircraft Accident Reports Pdf: Fill & Download for Free

Tl;dr: Survival in a non-survivable accident like JAL 123’s is purely random. Nothing you can do will change your likelihood of climbing or being dragged out of the wreckage alive.The Japan Transport Safety Board (https://www.mlit.go.jp/jtsb/english.html) (formerly the “Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission” under the Ministry of Transport) is world-class and did an excellent investigation of this heartbreaking tragedy. Their accident report (thoughtfully offered in English in a big PDF file at http://www.mlit.go.jp/jtsb/eng-air_report/JA8119.pdf) makes the following observation:“Four persons survived this accident, but they were all seriously injured. All of them were seated in the aft portion of the aft fuselage and are considered to have been subjected to tens of G, but they were able to escape death miraculously. The conceivable reason would be that their seating attitude, way to fasten the belt, status of damage to the seat, status of substances surrounding their body, etc., at the time of collision chanced to help buffer the impact, and that they were less subjected to collision with dispersed internal substances of the fuselage.” (Page 128)Captain Masami Takahama and his crew carried out an unbelievable feat of airmanship — on a par with that of Captain Al Haynes and his crew on United Airlines Flight 232 - Wikipedia — in keeping an essentially unflyable aircraft in the air for an agonizing amount of time. The only difference between the two really was the Japan Air Lines’ lack of options and inability to get out of the mountains they ultimately struck.JAL 123:UA 232 (mash-up of NTSB illustration and Topocreator (Create and print your own color shaded-relief topographic maps) map of Iowa):Both crews were confronted with grievously compromised flight control systems, and both used what little they control they had better than should have been humanly possible. UA 232 was coaxed to what amounted to a semi-controlled crash in an open area — the runway environment at Sioux City, IA — with dozens of first responders on hand, at a lower airspeed than JAL 123 could attain as its crew fought to survive over forbiddingly rugged terrain.Aircraft structures, seats, and interior furnishings all are designed to absorb impact forces, steer them away from occupants, spread out impact forces and delay the start or spread of post-crash fires. The crews will do what they can to manage a truly catastrophic situation, and most aircraft will take themselves apart trying to give the people inside them a chance.Captain Haynes and crew had enough room to bring down their DC-10 to what could have been a completely non-survivable impact and wound up saving more than half of the people aboard. Captain Takahama and crew couldn’t get their crippled Boeing 747 to more forgiving terrain to even make such an attempt before time ran out for them.However, like I said up front: when it comes to survival from a truly disastrous emergency, once the crash sequence has started, it’s purely random.