Major Air Loss Feared

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30977, 5 February 1966, Page 16

Major Air Loss Feared

(N.Z. Press Associotion — Copyright/

TOKYO, Feb. 4.

A Japanese jetliner carrying 133 people was feared crashed in Tokyo Bay today, the Associated Press reported.

If confirmed it would be the worst toll ever for a single commercial aircraft. The plane is a Boeing 727 of All-Nippon Airlines. At 9 p.m. (midnight N.Z. time) it was two hours overdue at Tokyo international airport. The plane was due at 7 p.m. on a flight from Chitose, Northern Japan. Kisarazu control tower lost contact with the Boeing seconds after it cleared it for a landing. An airline official said just before this the pilot had reported a malfunction in his instruments.

Officials said the plane was 37 miles from the airport when it disappeared from radar screens. The Maritime Safety Board said a Japanese ship cruising on Tokyo Bay, the Kita Maru, had reported “something resembling a fireball” in the sky at 6.57 p.m. Tokyo international air-

port is on the edge of Tokyo Bay. Aircraft landing there usually circle the bay while waiting for landing instructions. Immediately the alert was given 20 patrol boats were sent to criss-cross the bay for any trace of the plane. Unconfirmed reports of floating wreckage having been sighted were received at the airport