A US military Osprey air transport plane crashed into the sea in southern Japan on Wednesday with six people on board, with one death confirmed so far as the search for possible survivors continued.
The Japanese Coast Guard initially said the plane’s crew numbered eight people, but revised that number downward.
One of them was found unconscious at sea and in cardiac arrest, and her death was confirmed after she was taken to a hospital in Japan, according to the same source.
The Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the Coast Guard and local fishermen took part in the search operations.
The head of a local fishing association told AFP that fishermen had found three people at sea, but could not provide details about their health.
“We received information at 2:47 p.m. (5:47 GMT) today that a US Army Osprey crashed near Yakushima Island,” a US Coast Guard spokeswoman previously said in an interview with AFP .
“Police received a report that an Osprey was spewing flames from its left engine” and losing high altitude near Yakushima Island, a department emergency management official also told AFP. of Kagoshima, which includes Yakushima.
“The government is in the process of confirming the extent of the tragedy,” with the primary goal of “saving lives,” said Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno.
According to Japanese public television broadcaster NHK, the plane took off from the American naval air base at Iwakuni near Hiroshima, western Japan, to fly to another American military base in Okiwana, on the southwestern tip of the Japanese archipelago.
According to NHK, however, it was more specifically an Osprey CV-22 that belonged to another American air base in Japan, that of Yokota (near Tokyo).
Born from 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.
Recurrent fatal accidents
However, the reliability of this hybrid vehicle has long been controversial due to numerous fatal accidents.
In late August, three US Marines were killed and five people seriously injured when an Osprey crashed in northern Australia while taking part in joint US-Australian military exercises.
In 2022, four US Marines also died in Norway when their Osprey crashed during NATO exercises.
A US Army vehicle of the same type was also damaged 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.
Japan has had a history of incidents and accidents involving US military aircraft, 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.