A Look Back: Tokyo, Turbulence, and Near Disaster for 007 Crew

A new report out of the University of Reading suggests that turbulence, during air travel, could get be getting worse as the result of climate change.  We’ll leave the discussion on that to the scientists. But in the world of James Bond, air travel and severe turbulence have already left a mark on the franchise. Today, we’ll take a look back at this often overlooked tragedy.

The haunting story goes like this:

In the spring of 1966, members of the Bond production team had traveled to Japan to scout locations for the next film, You Only Live Twice. The team was made up of EON producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman,  director Lewis Gilbert, designer Ken Adam, and cinematographer Freddie Young.

On the day that the five men were scheduled to return home from Tokyo, they were offered an opportunity to see a ninja demonstration. They decided to skip the flight and stay. Little did they know that the decision would save their lives.

The flight was operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC): a Boeing 707 bound for Hong Kong, from Hanenda International Airport. It departed just before 2:00 local time. The captain was Bernard Dobson, an experienced pilot. For unknown reasons, possibly to give his passengers a picturesque view, Dobson changed the flight’s normal course and headed toward Mount Fuji.

As the plane ascended, passing over the town of Gotemba, it encountered high winds. In fact, the turbulence was so severe that the plane’s wings broke away, one by one. The plane went into an uncontrollable spin and crashed in a forest at the base of the mountain, at around 2:15. All 113 passengers and 11 crew members were killed.

Later investigations concluded that the plane encountered wind gusts (or turbulence) that it was not designed to withstand. 

The Bond production team returned home safely, and filming on You Only Live Twice began the following summer.