Incident
On November 22, 1968, Japan Air Lines Flight 2, a scheduled passenger flight from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), was operating with a six-month-old Douglas DC-8-62 aircraft named Shiga (志賀). The flight was under the command of Captain Kohei Asoh. As the aircraft approached SFO, heavy fog and other factors led the captain to mistakenly ditch the plane near Coyote Point in the shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, approximately two and a half miles short of the runway.
Survival and Recovery
All 107 people on board—passengers and crew—survived the ditching without any injuries. Despite being abruptly immersed in saltwater, the aircraft was subsequently recovered from the bay. After inspection and repairs, the aircraft was returned to service.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Douglas DC-8-62, a variant of the DC-8 series. It had been in service for six months at the time of the incident.