Stator Vane: At Mount Fuji it wasn't a DC-8, was a Boeing 707 and it belonged to a British airline, BOAC and I just happened to be reading about it last night (in a great book on air crash investigation I got called FLight 427:Anatomy of an AIr Disaster). In 1991 a Boeing 737 had just crashed in turbulent weather at Colorado SPrings killing all 25 aboard and investigators compiled a list of accidents which were blamed on turbulence to see if there was any similarity (Colorado Springs is in the lee of the Rockies)
The BOAC 707 detoured in 1966 to give passengers a good view of Mount Fuji but ran into dreadful turbulence which caused the tail fin to collapse. All 124 aboard died. A US fighter sent up to investigate ran into the same turbulence and was so badly shaken up that it was grounded for checks. The fighter pilot banged his head off the side of cockpit and his oxygen mask came loose. The flight recorder showed G forces ranging from plus 9 to minus 5.
They found another one, again over mountains, when, in 1964, a USAF B-52 bomber lost a large chunk of its tail but managed to land safely when it encountered turbulence over the Rockies. In Alaska in 1968 the right wing was ripped off a Fairchild F-27 and 39 died. In 1966 42 died when a BAC 1-11 disintegrated due to turbulence passing through a line of thunderstorms near Falls City, Nebraska. The last one was not over mountains, but was included to show how turbulence can wreck airplanes.
Spoiler alert: The Colorado SPrings crash wasn't caused by turbulence, it was decided.
Last edited by talent; 11th Sep 2012 at 10:16.