Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press
At least one crew member dies when the US military’s Osprey crashes
At least one person has died after a US military Osprey plane carrying six passengers crashed off southern Japan.
TOKYO (AP) — A crew member recovered from the sea after a U.S. Osprey military plane crashed with six people on board off southern Japan on Wednesday has been pronounced dead, Coast Guard officials said.
The cause of the crash and the status of the five other passengers on the plane are not immediately known, said coast guard spokesman Kazuo Ogawa. Initial reports said the plane was carrying eight people, but the U.S. military later revised the number to six, he said.
The coast guard received a distress call from a fishing boat near the crash site off Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima on the southern main island of Kyushu, he said.
Coast Guard aircraft and patrol boats found one person, who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, as well as gray debris believed to be from the plane, Ogawa said. They were found about a kilometer (0.6 miles) off the east coast of Yakushima. An empty inflatable life raft was also found in the area.
“The government will confirm the information about the damage and give top priority to saving lives,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but can turn its propellers forward during flight and fly much faster than an airplane. Versions of the aircraft are flown by the US Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.
Ogawa said the plane took off from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture and crashed en route to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa.
Japanese Vice Defense Minister Hiroyuki Miyazawa said the Osprey attempted an emergency landing at sea.
Kyodo News Agency quoted Kagoshima Prefectural officials as saying witnesses reported seeing fire from the Osprey’s left engine.
It said a Japanese military base in Saga, southern Japan, decided on Thursday to postpone planned Osprey flight exercises.
U.S. and Japanese officials said the plane belonged to Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo. U.S. Air Force officials in Yokota said they were still confirming the information and had no immediate comment.
Ospreys have had several accidents in the past, including in Japan, where they are stationed at both U.S. and Japanese military bases. In Okinawa, where about half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan are based, Gov. Denny Tamaki told reporters on Wednesday that he would call on the U.S. military to halt all Osprey flights in Japan.
In December 2016, a US Marine Corps Osprey crashed off the coast of Okinawa, injuring two of the five crew members and sparking complaints from local residents about US bases and the Osprey’s safety record.
A US Marine Corps Osprey with 23 Marines on board crashed on a northern Australian island in August, killing at least three people and seriously injuring at least five during a multinational exercise.
It was the fifth fatal Osprey crash since 2012, bringing the death toll to at least 19 at the time.