On August 12, 1985, Japan Airlines Flight 123 departed Tokyo for what should have been a short domestic flight to Osaka.

Just twelve minutes after takeoff, a catastrophic structural failure caused an explosive decompression, destroyed part of the aircraft’s tail, and severed all four hydraulic systems.

The Boeing 747 was still flying but the pilots could barely control it.

For approximately thirty-two minutes, the crew fought to keep the aircraft in the air using engine thrust as one of their only remaining tools.

But the investigation would reveal something even more disturbing:

the disaster had actually begun seven years earlier, with an incorrect repair following a previous tail strike.

In this episode of Black Box Files, we reconstruct the final flight of Japan Airlines 12 ...