Japan Airlines Flight 123 - Essay Example

JAPAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 123: MECHANICAL AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS Flight accident often occurs due to one reason or another. The detestable accidents which do happen are inevitable to human. The causes of flights incidents can be attributed to primary factors which are structural, mechanical and human error factors. This can occur as primary factors or secondary factor. In the case study of the flight incident for the Japan airlines flight 123 registered as ja8119, the flight was a departure from Tokyo to Osaka.

The factors are analyzed as follows: Mechanical Primary factors The airplane was said to have experienced engine problem at first. This led to cabin decompression. The mechanical problem which occurred within the engines caused vibrations and in the process the airplanes lost control. The accident was said to have been caused by loss of primary flight controls functions. This means that the flight control functions were fault bringing in a mechanical problem on the airplane operation. This implies that the engines and the flight control functions were the two major primary source factors contributing to the incidents.

Secondary factors Following the failure of the flight control functions, the steering and the pitch also developed complications. The failure for the control functions to operate led to the development of a thrust change within the steering and the pitch. This sudden steering change can thus be secondary mechanical factor that caused the perilous incident to occur. Structural Primary factors Aft pressure bulkhead: the structure of the aft pressures bulkhead was designed in a manner that it could not allow pressure to be released and built up effectively.

This design of the aft bulkhead could only allow considerable pressure to build inside without balancing of the realizing pressure rate. As a result, more pressure developed in it and it eventually ruptured. Initially, the way the airplane parts were assembled it was hard to prevent continuous propagation of damage. In its structures, the airplanes splices were assembled in such a way that an effect on one part of it would articulate its effects to the next part forming a series of issues. It is reported that there was mechanical cracks which had developed on the aft pressure bulkhead.

This eventually was then spread allover from spliced section of the bulkhead’s web. The bulkhead was weakened to its stretching limits that it could no longer endure the cabin pressures. Furthermore, cracks are said to have originated from the single central rivet. The rivets were definitely inappropriately placed in a linear manner making it easy for crack propagation from this central point to the next. As a result, this crack connectivity of rivet to rivet led to the imbalanced pressures inside and outside.

In addition to the structure of the airplane, it is the short wings which are used for the balancing of the airplanes. When the wings were drawn, the airplane seems to have increased acceleration on the rolling speed. This vividly provides evidence for the ineffective sized wings flaps which were installed. The rolling was further attributed to the inadequate edge margins of the splice plates that joined the upper and the lower halves of the bulkhead. Reference: Japan airline accident summary, (1985): accident /incident summary: retrieved from: http://lessons.air. Mmac.faa.gov: date June 4, 2008