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An Osprey aircraft takes off from U.S. military port facilities in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, March 20, 2023.
Tokyo CNN –
A US military Osprey aircraft crashed off the coast of the Japanese island of Yakushima in southern Kagoshima Prefecture on Wednesday with eight people on board, according to a spokesman for the Japanese Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard received information about the crash around 2:47 p.m. local time (12:47 a.m. ET), the spokesman said, adding that the 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters dispatched a patrol boat and an aircraft to the crash area.
The spokesman said there was currently no information about whether there were any injuries.
It is the latest fatal crash involving an Osprey military aircraft, with numerous accidents reported over the years.
In August this year, three US Marines were killed and several others seriously injured after an Osprey crashed during a military exercise in Australia.
In 2022, five U.S. Marines died after their MV-22B Osprey aircraft crashed during a training mission near Glamis, California. That same year, four US soldiers died when their Osprey crashed during a NATO exercise in Norway.
The Osprey is a highly flexible aircraft that can take off vertically like a helicopter, but can also perform high-speed flights using a more conventional winged turboprop aircraft.
In general, Osprey aircraft are safe to fly, but the plane has had a number of mechanical and operational problems since its introduction in the 1980s, according to CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.