Families and friends commemorated on Saturday the 38th anniversary of the Japan Airlines jet crash that killed 520 passengers and crew in the world's deadliest single-aircraft accident.

Braving the heat, mourners climbed the mountain trail to the Boeing 747 crash site on Osutaka Ridge in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, where they paid their respects at a monument and grave markers for their lost loved ones.

Kuniko Miyajima, who leads an association of kin of the victims, said, "We all share a desire for safety and peace." The 76-year-old, who lost her 9-year-old son Ken in the 1985 crash, said she hopes to pass on the lessons learnt from the tragedy to the next generation.

Yuji Akasaka, president of Japan Airlines Co., also laid flowers and offered his prayers at the monument. According to Japan Airlines, 206 people from 52 families joined the hike as of 11 a.m.

Also among the hikers was Kyoko Fukuda, 84, who lost her 56-year-old husband Takeshi. It was her first hike since 2019 as she had refrained from climbing the trail during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At her late husband's grave marker, she talked about the birth of a great grandchild and said, "As always, I am doing just fine."

With coronavirus pandemic limits imposed on the number of attendees in 2020 now lifted, relatives of the victims are set to attend an evening memorial ceremony at the foot of the mountain ridge in the village of Ueno. The crash occurred at 6:56 p.m.

On Aug. 12, 1985, a packed JAL flight 123 en route from Tokyo to Osaka crashed around 40 minutes after take-off, leaving only four survivors among the 524 people on board.

Kyu Sakamoto, a 43-year-old singer known for his hit song "Sukiyaki," was among the dead.

Many were traveling to their hometowns during Japan's Bon summer holiday season.

In 1987, a Japanese government investigation commission concluded that the accident was caused by improper repairs by Boeing Co. on the plane's rear pressure bulkhead, whose rupture blew off the craft's vertical stabilizer and destroyed its hydraulic systems.

==Kyodo

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