Article published on August 13th, 1985.

HEADLINE: COMPENSATION IN JAPAN AIR CRASH IS LIKELY TO EXCEED $100 MILLION

Besides being the worst single-plane catastrophe in aviation history, the crash of a Japan Air Lines jumbo jet two weeks ago is likely to become one of the most expensive disasters as well.

Although no claims have been filed yet by victims' families, the airline and its insurers are likely to pay more than $100 million, and perhaps double that.

That does not include damages that may be sought in court from the plane's manufacturer, the Boeing Company, should investigators determine that it shares blame for the crash of the Boeing 747SR that killed 520 people.

The continuing inquiry into the crash of Japan Air Lines Flight 123 on Aug. 12 has produced an unusual amount of public debate in this country, with some airline pilots and aviation experts questioning the thoroughness of the investigation.

Search Operations First

As is customary in transportation accidents in Japan, search operations focused first on finding and identifying the bodies.

That differs from procedures in the United States, where public disclosures about the causes of crashes tend to come quickly. Japanese officials have said nothing conclusive about what they think caused the jet to swerve out of control from its Tokyo-to-Osaka flight path before plowing into a mountainside in Gumma Prefecture, 70 miles northwest of Tokyo. Four people, two women and two girls, survived.

A group of Japanese pilots charged in a letter to the Transport Ministry that investigators might have misinterpreted parts of the recorded conversations from the cockpit of the plane. Pilots have also criticized the Japanese Government for not making full use of United States air-crash experts who arrived 12 days ago but who reportedly have not played an active role.

The American team consists of two officials each from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, and five Boeing representatives. None of them has said so publicly, but they are understood to be disappointed with the passive role assigned them.

One of the survivors, Keiko Kawakami, 12 years old, her right arm in a cast, left a hospital today in Takasaki for her home in Matsue on the Sea of Japan. She insisted on making the 350-mile trip by car.

At a parliamentary committee hearing, opposition party members challenged Government officials about why the entire night passed before rescue operations began. The officials replied, as they have in the last two weeks, that trying to land helicopters at night on a densely wooded mountain would have risked more lives.

Japan Air Lines' compensation payments are expected to be uncommonly high if only because of the number of victims involved. Beyond that, the flight carried a large number of well-paid business executives.

A fourth of the 509 passengers were company managers; 29 were company presidents, including the heads of House Foods Industrial, a leading curry and spice company, and the Hanshin Tigers professional baseball team.

The Warsaw Convention, an international treaty, limits an airline's liability to $75,000 for each passenger.