Divers on Sunday recovered the remains of the seventh of eight crew members from a US military Osprey aircraft that crashed in southern Japan during a training mission.
An Air Force CV-22 Osprey crashed on November 29 near Yakushima Island in southwestern Japan while en route to Okinawa.
The bodies of six crew members have been recovered, including five from the sunken wreckage.
The US Air Force Special Operations Command said in a statement that the body found by Air Force divers was one of two crew members still missing.
The pilot’s identity has been determined but that information is being withheld until next of kin can be notified, the order said.
“There is currently a joint effort in finding and recovering the remains of our eighth aircraft,” he said.
A week after the crash and repeated warnings from the Japanese government about safety concerns, the US military grounded all of its Osprey V-22 aircraft after an initial investigation showed something wrong with the craft was not human error.
A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper searches the waters where a US military Osprey aircraft crashed, off Yakushima, Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, on Dec. 1, 2023. AP
The US-made Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can spin its propellers forward and cruise faster, like an airplane, during flight.
The crash raises new questions about the safety of the Osprey, which has been involved in multiple fatal accidents in its relatively short service life.
Japan grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the crash.
Japanese defense officials say Ospreys are key to the country’s military buildup, particularly in southwestern Japan, in the face of a growing threat from China.
But the crash has reignited concerns and public protests in areas where additional Osprey deployments are planned.
Japanese residents and the media have criticized the Japanese government for not making more of an effort to have the Ospreys punished sooner or to gain access to information about the crash.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
