The search continues Thursday to locate seven missing people after a U.S. Army Osprey crashed at sea in southwestern Japan the previous day, killing at least one.
• Also read: US military plane crashes at sea in Japan, at least one dead
One of the crew members of this half-plane, half-helicopter transport vehicle was found unconscious and in cardiac arrest at sea on Wednesday, and his death was confirmed after he was transferred to a Japanese hospital.
The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command said the Osprey CV-22B had eight crew members on board and was conducting “a routine training mission” from the U.S. Yokota Air Force Base near Tokyo.
“The cause of the accident is currently unknown,” he said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that rescue workers “are on scene conducting search and rescue operations.”
Japan has asked American forces to suspend flights of its Ospreys on Japanese territory until their safety is “ensured,” with the exception of aircraft of this type taking part in “search and rescue operations,” Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said Thursday.
Tokyo is also calling for “the rapid disclosure of information about the circumstances of the accident,” Mr. Kihara added.
The Japanese army has already stopped flights of its own Ospreys, said Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno, while also expressing his condolences for the crash.
“Airplanes and ships used”
An emergency management official in Japan’s Kagoshima department (southwest), off whose coast the plane crashed, told AFP on Wednesday that local police “received a report that an osprey was breathing flames from its left engine” and was losing altitude significantly have near the island of Yakushima.
“I saw the Osprey flying toward Yakushima airport and starting to spin,” Kayo Ito, a local fisherman, told public broadcaster NHK.
“Soon after, an orange light came out of it and just 10 seconds later it fell into the sea. “A column of water 50 to 100 meters high came out,” she said, adding: “I can only imagine the magnitude of the disaster if she had crashed into a ship or more near the island.” (That) concerns me .”
Photos released by the Japanese Coast Guard showed what appeared to be an overturned yellow lifeboat and other debris floating on the water’s surface.
A coast guard spokesman told AFP on Thursday that search operations continued throughout the night and that “planes and ships were deployed.” This agency once mentioned having six crew members on board instead of eight.
The result of a collaboration between American aircraft manufacturer Boeing and helicopter specialist Bell, the Osprey is equipped with tilting rotors that allow it to take off and land vertically like a helicopter and fly like an airplane.
Numerous accidents
The reliability of this hybrid machine has long been controversial due to numerous fatal accidents.
In late August, three US Marines were killed and five people seriously injured in an Osprey accident in northern Australia while the aircraft was taking part in joint US-Australian military exercises.
In 2022, four US Marines also died in Norway when their Osprey crashed during NATO exercises.
An American vehicle of the same type also had an accident at sea in 2017 after it crashed into the stern of a ship during US-Australian military exercises, killing three people.
And in April 2000, 19 Marines were killed when an Osprey crashed in Arizona, southwestern United States.
The U.S. military has about 54,000 troops in Japan, most of whom are stationed in the southern archipelago of Okinawa.
In Japan, there have been various incidents and accidents involving US military aircraft in the past, including Ospreys, which are viewed negatively by the Japanese population, particularly in Okinawa, due to their recurring safety problems.
In 2016, the emergency landing of an Osprey off the coast of Okinawa, resulting in no casualties, forced American forces to suspend the flights of these aircraft in Japan for several days due to violent local protests.