Nitto Aviation Oyashio crash

The Nitto Aviation Oyashio crash (Nittō Kōkū Oyashio-gō tsuiraku jiko) was an aviation accident that occurred on 18 February 1964 (Shōwa 39).

Overview of the accident

Nitto Aviation's Grumman Mallard amphibious airliner Oyashio, carrying a total of 10 people, 3 crew and 7 passengers, from Osaka Airport to Tokushima, after taking off from the runway, struck the underside of its fuselage on the embankment of the airport drainage channel beyond the runway, and while turning to the right, crashed at 8:22 am into a rice paddy at Tano, Amagasaki City, Hyōgo Prefecture, about 1 km south of the Osaka Airport runway.

At the moment of the crash fire broke out from the engine section; on receiving word of this accident, the Itami, Toyonaka and Amagasaki police and fire stations immediately rushed 200 personnel and more than 20 police cars and fire engines to the scene, and at once worked to recover the injured and put out the fire, but the fire spread quickly, and it was put out only after the front half of the aircraft had completely burned away. In this accident a total of 2 people, the stewardess Miyoko Asahata and 1 passenger, were killed, and 7 passengers were injured.

When the aircraft was examined after the accident, all 3 blades of the left propeller were bent, whereas only 1 blade of the right propeller was bent and the remaining 2 were not bent at all. From the above, it was presumed that at take-off the aircraft's right engine had stopped for some reason, and that it crashed because of the resulting lack of thrust.