Harrowing discovery on passenger's camera after plane fell from sky killing 124

06 April 2024 , 04:34

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British Overseas Airways Corporation's flight 911 - call sign Speedbird 911 - seen on the day of the crash

It was one of the world's greatest-ever aviation disasters. A Boeing 707 passenger jet carrying 113 passengers and 11 crew that fell out of the sky, killing every soul on board.

British Overseas Airways Corporation's flight 911 - call sign Speedbird 911 - took off without issue from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on the sunny but fateful afternoon of March 5, 1966, destined for Hong Kong.

But shortly after takeoff, disaster struck. The six-year-old aircraft was rocked by horrifying turbulence near Japan's iconic Mount Fuji. The plane was flying between 370mph and 425mph at 16,000ft. Suddenly, the aircraft was seen trailing white vapour as it rapidly lost altitude. Parts of the plane began to break away as witnesses watched in disbelief.

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It was one of the few recorded cases of turbulence so strong that it shattered the structure of the Boeing. At an altitude of 6,500ft, the fuselage completely snapped in two and the wreckage spiralled downwards in a terrifying death plunge.

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The plane crashed into the forests of Mount Fuji and exploded into a fireball with no survivors. The wreckage was discovered across a 10-mile area. Haunting photos taken by the Japanese military that day show the jet as it made its deadly descent.

Harrowing discovery on passenger's camera after plane fell from sky killing 124

The plane broke apart due to extreme clear-air turbulence and fell into a death spiral - all filmed by the Japanese military

The aircraft began to trail white vapour before crashing, killing all 124 souls on board

The official crash report concluded: "The probable cause of the accident is that the aircraft suddenly encountered abnormally severe turbulence over Gotemba City which imposed a gust load considerably in excess of the design limit."

But it was one of the discoveries from a doomed passenger's personal possessions that painted the most harrowing picture of what the travellers endured in the minutes before their deaths.

One passenger had been filming the flight using an 8mm camera. The footage, which has never been made public, contained recordings of the airport in Tokyo, as well as views of the beautiful mountain route from above.

However, crash investigators discovered two frames were missing from the film, before the footage cut back to views of the backs of seats and the plane floor.

Experts say that it would require a force of 7.5g - in other words, seven-and-a-half times the strength of Earth's gravity - for the camera's mechanism to skip frames in this way. G forces over 6 for a sustained period can prove fatal. The missing frames suggested a brutal and violent end for many of the passengers, even before the plane hit the ground.

The jet crashed and exploded into a fireball in the forests on the banks of Japan's Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji had clear skies on that fateful day and no-one predicted the deadly turbulence (file photo) (Getty Images)

An edition of Flight International magazine, published in 1967 after the official crash report was released, said: "Evidence from the wreckage and from an 8mm colour film exposed by a passenger suggest that the aircraft disintegrated in a very short period of time.

"The film sequences showed pictures of Tokyo Airport, of the Tanzawa mountains and Lake Yamanaka, followed by two empty frames, then by what appeared to be pictures of passenger seats and/or a carpet before coming suddenly to an end. Tests showed that a peak load of 7.5g was needed to make the film-feeding malfunction so as to skip frames in this way."

The crash of Speedbird 911 was one of four fatal aircraft disasters in Japan that year - including one just a day earlier at Haneda Airport which killed all but eight of the 72 people on board.

These crashes rocked the country's aviation industry and led to a movement for safety reforms that have led to much improved standards in the decades since.