JAPANESE COAST GUARD VIA AP
In this photograph provided by the Japan Coast Guard, debris believed to be from a U. S. Osprey military aircraft is visible. The U. S. Coast Guard is in front of Yakushima Island in Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture on Wednesday, Nov. 29. The Osprey military plane carrying six other people crashed off the coast of southern Japan on Wednesday and was pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.
TOKYO >> Japan is contemplating postponing its own Osprey flights after a U. S. Air Force Osprey crashed into the U. S. Air Force. WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U. S. Navy based in Japan will crash in waters off the southern coast during an educational mission, officials said Thursday. Tokyo also called on the U. S. military toto prevent all Ospreys from operating in Japan. unless they are those looking for victims of a twist of fate.
A senior Defense Ministry official, Taro Yamato, told a parliamentary hearing that Japan is contemplating postponing the Osprey flights for the time being, although there were few other details.
A JAPANESE-FOUNDED U. S. Air Force osprey crashed an educational project off the country’s southern coast on Wednesday, killing at least one of the team’s eight members.
The cause of the accident and the status of the other seven people on board were not immediately known, said Japan Coast Guard spokesman Kazuo Ogawa. The Coast Guard planned to continue its search that night.
The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but in flight it can rotate its propellers forward and fly much faster like an airplane.
Ospreys have suffered accidents, especially in Japan, where they are used on U. S. and Japanese military bases. In Okina, where about part of the 50,000 U. S. troops are stationed, Gov. Denny Tamaki told reporters Wednesday that he would ask the U. S. military to suspend all Osprey flights to Japan.
Ogawa said the coast guard received an emergency call Wednesday afternoon from a fishing boat near the accident off the coast of Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima on the southern main island of Kyushu.
Coast guard planes and patrol boats discovered a male team member, who was later pronounced dead by a medic, Ogawa said. They also discovered debris believed to be from the plane and an empty inflatable life raft about 1 kilometer (0. 6 miles) to the east. Yakushima coast, he said.
The Coast Guard said it planned to continue its search that night.
Japanese Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the Osprey disappeared from radar minutes before the coast guard got the emergency call. The plane requested an emergency landing at Yakushima airport about five minutes before disappearing from radar, public broadcaster NHK and other media reported.
NHK quoted a Yakushima resident who saw the plane capsize, a fire in one of its engines, and then an explosion before falling into the sea.
The U. S. Air Force’s Special Operations CommandThe U. S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the CV-22B Osprey originated at Yokota Air Force Base and was assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing.
Ogawa said the plane took off from the U. S. Marine Corps Air Base in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and crashed while en route to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
Japan’s Deputy Defense Minister Hiroyuki Miyazawa said it had attempted an emergency landing at sea and quoted the U. S. military as saying its pilot “did everything imaginable until the last minute. “
Yokota Air Base is home to Japanese American forces and the Fifth Air Force. Six CV-22 Ospreys were deployed to Yokota, the one that crashed.
While the United States Marine Corps flies most Ospreys in Japan, the Air Force has also deployed some there.
Last year, the Air Force Special Operations Command ordered the temporary closure of its Osprey fleet following back-to-back protection incidents in which the Ospreys slipped, causing an asymmetrical distribution of force between the Osprey’s rotors.
The Marine Corps and Navy have all reported a similar clutch slippage, and the service has worked to fix the problem on its aircraft, however, a clutch failure has also been cited in a fatal crash of a U. S. Marine Corps Osprey. The U. S. military crash in 2022 killed five people.
According to the investigation of this accident, a “rough double coupling” led to engine failure.
On the other hand, a U. S. Marine Corps Osprey is a member of the U. S. Navy. A U. S. Navy with 23 Marines on board crashed on an island off northern Australia in August, killing 3 Marines and seriously injuring at least five others who were aboard a multinational educational exercise.
Copp reported from Washington.
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