A September 1998 plane crash in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, that killed all five people aboard was the result of the aircraft going into a "graveyard spiral," a Transport Ministry task force concluded Friday.
A spiral is an attitude an aircraft can get into if the pilot loses spatial orientation. John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane is believed to have gone into a spiral or a spin before it crashed off Long Island earlier this year.
In a report submitted to Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission said the plane started spiraling downward while the pilot was flying on instruments in clouds and disintegrated in midair.