Japan said it had asked the US to suspend all non-emergency V-22 Osprey flights over its territory after one crashed into the sea on Wednesday in western Japan, marking the first US military aircraft crash in the country in five years.
The US Air Force said the cause of the crash during a routine training mission, which killed at least one person, is currently unknown.
Search and rescue operations to find the remaining seven crew members are still ongoing.
“Such an accident has caused great concern to the people of the region… and we ask the US side to conduct a flight of Ospreys stationed in Japan after this flight is confirmed safe,” Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told parliament on Thursday.
Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF), which also operate Ospreys, will suspend flights of the transport aircraft until the circumstances of the incident are clarified, another defense ministry official said.
Japanese coast guard helicopters and patrol ships conduct a search and rescue operation in the waters where a military Osprey aircraft crashed off the coast of Japan’s Yakushima Island on November 30, 2023. AP
Speaking to reporters late in the afternoon, Kihara confirmed reports that the US military was still operating its Ospreys, saying that Japan’s regional defense bureau had counted 20 Ospreys landing and taking off around US bases as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
A spokesman for US military forces in Japan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Our focus is on the ongoing search and rescue operations, and we pray for their safe return,” Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, said in a post on X.
A Japanese Coast Guard ship and a helicopter conduct a search and rescue operation at the site of a US military MV-22 Osprey aircraft that crashed into the sea off western Japan November 29, 2023. via REUTERS
Witnesses said the plane’s left engine appeared to be on fire as it approached the airport for an emergency landing in clear weather and strong winds, media reported.
Developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, the V-22 hybrid, which can land and take off like a helicopter and fly like a fixed-wing aircraft, is operated by the US Air Force, Marines and Navy, and the SDF.
The deployment of the aircraft in Japan has sparked controversy, with critics of the US military presence in the southwestern islands saying it is prone to accidents. The US and Japan say it is safe.
Wreckage believed to belong to a US military V-22 Osprey plane that crashed into the sea is collected on Yakushima Island in western Japan November 30, 2023. via REUTERS
“It is very regrettable and it should not have happened at all,” Kihara told reporters on Thursday evening, when asked about the accident in the southwestern region of Japan, where the US military is mostly based.
Japan hosts the largest concentration of US military forces overseas, with the country home to the only forward-deployed US carrier strike group, an Asian airlift hub, fighter squadrons and US Marine Corps expeditionary forces.
In August, a US Osprey crashed off Australia’s northern coast while transporting troops during a routine military exercise, killing three US Marines.
Another crash landed in the ocean off the southern island of Okinawa in December 2016, the first of its kind in Japan, prompting the US military to ground the plane.
The last fatal US military plane crash in Japan was in 2018, when a mid-air collision during a training exercise killed six people, according to the defense ministry.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
