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Japan Airlines Boeing 747-200F accident

19 Dec 1983 · Anchorage, AK, United States

Boeing 747-200F · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing

From Narita International Airport (NRT) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)

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Event

NTSB case
ANC84FA026
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Boeing 747-200F

Aircraft type
Boeing 747
Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
J8151
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Narita International Airport (NRT), Tokyo, JAPANTo Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 129: Foreign
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Landing · flare/touchdown
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
In flight collision with object
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Control tower service, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AT 2359 THE LOCAL CONTROLLER CLEARED THE FLT TO LAND ON RWY 6R. AT 0001 THE GROUND CONTROLLER CLEARED A STATE-OPERATED PICK-UP TRUCK ONTO RWY 6R FOR A TAPLEY RUN. THE GROUND CONTROLLER STATED THAT HE REQUESTED CLEARANCE FROM THE LOCAL CONTROLLER TO ALLOW THE TRUCK ON THE RWY. HE WAS NOT AWARE THAT THE B-747 HAD BEEN CLEARED TO LAND. THE LOCAL CONTROLLERWAS BUSY WITH OTHER COMMUNICATIONS & WAS NOT SURE IF HE ACKNOWLEDGED THE REQUEST FROM GROUND CONTROL; HOWEVER, THE GROUND CONTROLLER BELIEVED THE LOCAL CONTROLLER SAID 'OKAY.' THE ACFT STRUCK THE TRUCK ABOUT 2,000 FT BEYOND THE APPROACH END OF THE RWY WHILE THE ACFT'S MAIN LANDING GEAR WAS ON THE GROUND BUT THE NOSE HAD NOT YET BEEN LOWERED FROM THE LANDING ATTITUDE. THE FLT CREW STATED THAT THEY DID NOT SEE THE TRUCK PRIOR TO THE COLLISION. AT 0013 THE RWY VISUALRANGE(RVR) WAS 600 FT VARIABLE 800 FT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC84FA026
Event ID
20001214X45209
Case number
ANC84FA026
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 7d79b0ba8d9acc8b233bf2391eed9f018bda1f52305cb469febe571b8a3b0768; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:47:24.939Z.