JAT Flight JU 367

Infobox Airliner accident|name=JAT Airways Flight 367
Crash

Image caption =
Date=January 26, 1972
Type=Bombing
Site=Hinterhermsdorf, East Germany flagicon|East Germany
Fatalities=27
Injuries=1
Aircraft Type=McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
Origin=Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, Sweden flagicon|Sweden
Last stopover=Copenhagen Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark flagicon|Denmark
Destination=Zagreb Airport, Zagreb, Yugoslavia flagicon|Yugoslavia
Operator=JAT Yugoslav Airlines
Tail Number=airreg|YU|AHT|disaster
Passengers=23
Crew=5
Survivors=1

JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367, was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft (registration YU-AHT) which exploded shortly after overflying Hinterhermsdorf, East Germany while en route from Stockholm to Belgrade on January 26, 1972. The aircraft spun out of control, crashing near the town of Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). 27 of 28 of those on board were killed upon ground impact; one crew member survived.

Cause

The cause was attributed by a speaker of the Yugoslav federal government to Croat far right nationalist terrorists who had placed a bomb on the Yugoslav plane.Fact|date=August 2008. The only evidence for blaming Croatian extremists was a phone call which was received by the Malmö, Sweden newspaper 'Äftenposten' the day after the crash. A man speaking bad Swedish said he was member of a group of Croatian nationalist who brought a bomb on board of flight JU 367. Neither the Czechoslovak investigation commission nor Czechoslovakia's state prosecutor, who was in charge of the criminal prosecution in that case, ever confirmed that.

The crash site was sealed off for 24 hours. This was reported by numerousFact|date=August 2008 local and international news outlets at the time.

It is said that the surviving crew member, flight attendant Vesna Vulović, fell from 10,160 meters (33,333 feet) in the tail section of the plane. Vesna always denied that she had been in the plane's tail section but in the middle section right over the wings.

Vulović was in a coma for 27 days and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, but survived. [http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1972/1972-7.htm] She continued working for the airline, holding a desk job. She was entered into the Guinness Book of Records for the highest fall survived without a parachute.

Discovery Channel

This incident has been featured on two Discovery Channel programs, "The FBI Files" and "MythBusters".

The FBI Files

In the episode "Radical Resistance", FBI agents in cooperation with local police agencies went up against Otpor, a Croatian extremist terror group. A copy of a newspaper article about the disaster was displayed during the narration. [http://www.tv.com/the-fbi-files/radical-resistance/episode/540724/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;101 Tv.Com - The FBI Files: Radical Resistance (Reference to Flight 367)] ]

MythBusters

In the episode "", Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman attempted to recreate the circumstances that allowed Vesna Vulović to survive the crash. [http://www.tv.com/mythbusters/escape-slide-parachute/episode/439949/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;45 Tv.Com - Mythbusters: Escape Slide Parachute (Story of Vesna Vulović)] ]

ee also

* List of accidents and incidents involving airliners by airline
* TWA Flight 355

References

External links

* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=YU-AHT&distinct_entry=true Airliners.Net: Picture of YU-AHT]
* [http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1972/1972-7.htm PlaneCrashInfo.Com: Entry on Flight 367]
* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19720126-0&lang=en Aviation Safety Network: Entry on Flight 367]
* [http://www.hrady.cz/index.php?OID=3793 JAT 367 Memorial]