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Horrified controllers had watched the disabled aircraft drop to below 10,000 ft. and then, at 6:57 p.m., disappear from their radar screens altogether. The 747, still heading north rather than east, had plunged into a slope of 5,400-ft.-high Mount Osutaka, a pine-covered granite peak. Weighing more than 350 tons, the plane buried much of its fuselage in a steeply angled ridge at an altitude of 4,700 ft. Flames spurted into the sky as the impact ignited fuel tanks; even the metal scraps burned fiercely as the 747 sliced through the trees.
It was dark when Ochiai mercifully fell asleep, still pinned in the wreckage. But before she did, she later told a hospital nurse, she heard children crying. The sounds were loud, but gradually grew softer. Then there was silence. Ochiai heard one other loud noise: that of a helicopter. She waved her hand, but nothing happened. Then she slept. She did not know how long.
The flames had attracted searchers dispatched by Japan's Air Self-Defense Force. They made passes in two planes but saw nothing moving in the desolate, fiery scene. Much of the wreckage had spilled onto a nearly 45° slope, and there was no way for even a chopper to land safely in the dark. Expecting no survivors, the searchers spent the rainy night setting up a base in the mountain village of Uenomura, 42 miles from the crash site. Area firemen and Japan's Ministry of Transport also mobilized searchers. But the narrow, serpentine roads and trails winding up from the villages in the valley ended far below the wreckage high on the mountain. Nonetheless, some rescuers set out on foot during the night.
At daybreak, before any of them had reached the site, TIME Tokyo Bureau Chief Edwin Reingold surveyed the area from a helicopter. "The crash scene was still and seemed oddly, pitifully small to represent such a major disaster," he reported. "The body of the jet had crashed through trees, uprooting them as they tore the plane apart. Stripped and blackened trees were still smoldering, and small fires could be seen amid surprisingly tiny pieces of debris. There was no sign of life. No bodies were visible. But this was deceptive. The plane had broken apart, and major parts of it, as well as its human cargo, had been flung into the ravines and gullies on either side of the narrow ridge. The air was filled with a vile stench from the burning plane, in grim contrast to the cool, clear, bracing air of the cloud-shrouded mountaintop."
It was not until about 9 a.m., more than 14 hours after the 747 had gone down, that local firemen reached the site following a difficult climb, while paratroopers began rappelling down ropes from hovering helicopters. One of the fire men, scouring a ravine, suddenly shouted, "There's something moving down there!" He had spotted Ochiai between the seats. She was seriously hurt, with a broken pelvis and arm fractures, but she was conscious. Next the searchers found Keiko Kawakami, 12, caught in a tree and, incredibly, suffering only cuts and torn muscles. Also still alive were Hiroko Yoshizaki, 34, and her daughter Mikiko, 8, who were found under debris. Both had broken bones. The two children were lifted to the helicopter in the arms of troopers hanging from horse-collar slings. The women were winched into the chopper on stretchers.