JAL displays 17 items from 1985 disaster

Japan Airlines Corp. on Monday began exhibiting 17 items found at the crash site of the world's worst single airplane disaster.

The Aug. 12, 1985, crash of a JAL jumbo jet killed 520 passengers and crew members.

The items, displayed at the airline's Safety Promotion Center near Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, include crushed spectacle frames, bent ball-point pens and watches that stopped working around 6:56 p.m., the time the aircraft plowed into a mountainous area of Gunma Prefecture, killing all but four people on board.

JAL set up the display in response to requests from bereaved families.

The individual owners of some 2,700 items collected from the crash site in Ueno village are not known. JAL initially planned to incinerate the assortment of personal possessions and dedicate the ashes at a memorial facility.

However, the airline canceled the plan after bereaved families expressed opposition.

In April 2006, JAL opened the Safety Promotion Center to help heighten safety awareness among its employees.

The center displayed not only the aircraft wreckage, including the rear pressure bulkhead that is said to have caused the disaster but also handwritten wills composed by some of the victims in the final minutes of Flight 123, which was en route from Tokyo to Osaka when the plane went down.

JAL's decision to set up the center apparently reflected a change of policy. Instead of trying to put the disaster behind it, the airline decided that it must never forget what happened, according to industry insiders.

The 17 items put on display Monday comprise five watches, three spectacle frames, three keys, two ball-point pens, an electronic calculator and three camera lenses.

JAL said it chose the items to illustrate the impact of the crash.

As for the remaining personal possessions, the airline is considering photographing them to create a database that visitors to the center can access on computers.

The 17 items will be shown only to bereaved families until today. They will go on public display from Monday.

Tuesday marked the 23rd anniversary of the disaster.

Several hundred bereaved family members braved humid conditions to reach the crash site in what is called Osutaka Ridge to offer prayers to the victims in front of a memorial monument.(IHT/Asahi: August 13,2008)