DC-8 JA8032 named "Shiga" arrived in the San Francisco area after an uneventful flight from Tokyo. Normal communications were established, and the crew was radar vectored to the Woodside VOR and thence to intercept the ILS for runway 28L at San Francisco. The flight crossed the Woodside VOR at 17:16 at approximately 4,000 feet and, at 17:18:30, was cleared to descend to 2,000 feet . The flight descended in a constant, uninterrupted rate of descent from this time until about 6 seconds before water impact at 17:24:25. The aircraft was on the localizer and contacted the water about 2,5 miles from the end of runway 28L. There were no injuries to any of the passengers or crew during the accident and ensuing evacuation. The aircraft was recovered from the waters of San Francisco Bay about 55 hours after the accident. Repairs were carried out by United Air Lines and the plane was delivered back to JAL on March 31, 1969.
TACA Flight 110 (Boeing 737) During descent from FL350 for an IFR arrival to New Orleans, the flight crew noted green and yellow returns on the weather radar with some isolated red cells, left and right of the intended flight path. Before entering clouds at FL300, the captain selected continuous engine ignition and activated engine anti-ice systems. The crew selected a route between the 2 cells, displayed as red on the weather radar. Heavy rain, hail and turbulence were encountered. At about FL165, both engines flamed out. The APU was started and aircraft electrical power was restored while descending through abou FL106. Attempts to wind-mill restart the engines were unsuccessful. Both engines lit-off by using starters, but neither would accelerate to idle; advancing the thrust levers increased the EGT beyond limits. The engines were shut down to avoid a catastrophic failure. An emergency landing was made on a 6060 feetx120 feet grass strip next to a levee without further damage to the aircraft.
Investigation revealed that the aircraft encountered a level 4 thunderstorm but engines flamed out, though they had met the FAA specs for water ingestion. The aircraft had minor hail damage; the #2 engine was damaged from overtemperature.
The 737 took off from the field on June 6.