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All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 60 was a Boeing 727-81 aircraft that crashed on February 4, 1966. All 133 passengers and crew were killed when the aircraft crashed into Tokyo Bay about 10.4 km (6.5 miles) from Tokyo's Haneda International Airport in clear weather conditions while on a night approach. The accident held the death toll record for a single-plane incident until 1971.

The aircraft carried 126 passengers and a crew of seven. Most of the passengers were returning from the annual winter carnival at Chitose, 600 miles north of Tokyo and point of origin for the flight. Flying in clear weather, the All-Nippon Airway plane was minutes away from Tokyo Airport when its pilot radioed he would land visually without instruments. Then the airliner vanished from radar screens.

Villagers along the shore and the pilot of another plane said they saw flames in the sky at about 7 p.m., the moment the plane was due to land. Then fishermen and Japanese Defense Force boats began picking up bodies from the murky waters of the bay. They had picked up approximately 20 when an airline spokesman announced the fuselage had been found with scores of bodies inside. He said this led to the belief that all aboard were dead. Grappling hooks from a Coast Guard boat brought up the wreckage.^[2]

This accident was one of five fatal aircraft disasters—four commercial and one military—in Japan in 1966. One month later Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 402 struck the approach lights and a seawall at Tokyo International, killing 64 of 72 on board. Less than 24 hours later, BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707, taxied past the still smoldering wreckage of that DC-8, then broke up in flight shortly after departure, killing all 124 passengers and crew. Japan Air Lines Convair 880-22M was crashed and killed five people on August 26. All Nippon Airways Flight 533 crashed and killed 50 people on November 13. The combined effect of these five accidents shook public confidence in commercial aviation in Japan, and both Japan Air Lines and All Nippon Airways were forced to cut back some domestic service due to reduced demand.

References

External links

• AirDisaster.Com Accident Database, Accident Synopsis 02041966
• AirSafe.com Fatal Boeing 727 Events
• Reuters (1966-03-19). "Japan's airlines cut Tokyo-Osaka runs". The New York Times: p. 58. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D11F93A541A7493CBA81788D85F428685F9. "Japan Air Lines and All Nippon Airways announced today a reduction in their flights between Tokyo and Osaka following three air crashes in the last six weeks." 

External links

• Newsreel footage at British Pathe (requires Adobe Flash)

← 1965 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1966 1967→ Air India Flight 101 (January 24) – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 (February 4) – Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 402 (March 4) – BOAC Flight 911 (March 5) – Braniff Flight 250 (August 6) – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 (October 1) – All Nippon Airways Flight 533 (November 13) – Pan Am Flight 708 (November 15) – TABSO Flight 101 (November 24) Bold blue indicates incidents resulting at least 50 deaths — Red indicates the deadliest incident in 1966