Family members of victims in the world's deadliest single-aircraft accident hiked Tuesday to the mountainous site in Japan where the plane went down, as the country marked 40 years since the tragedy that killed 520 people.

On August 12, 1985, the doomed Boeing 747 was around 40 minutes into an hour-long flight from Tokyo to Osaka, when it crashed into a mountain about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of the capital.

Tuesday saw hundreds of people -- including bereaved families and friends -- hike the trails up to the cenotaph erected on Mount Osutaka where the jet crashed.

Among them was a woman who lost her younger brother in the accident.

"I want to tell him that all of his family members are alive, with his soul on our shoulders", she told broadcaster Fuji TV.

"We're doing our b

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