TOKYO- A US military plane with eight people on board crashed into the sea off western Japan on Wednesday, with some media reporting that one crew member had died and the condition of at least two others who were rescued from the waters was unclear.
Japan’s coast guard said what appeared to be debris from a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor and an “unresponsive” person had been found about 3 km off the island of Yakushima.
A fishing boat in the area found three people in the surrounding waters, a local fishing cooperative representative said, adding that their condition was unknown.
A wreckage believed to belong to a US military MV-22 Osprey aircraft crashes into the sea off Japan’s Yakushima Island November 29, 2023. via REUTERS
Another Osprey landed safely at the island’s airport on Wednesday evening around the time of the crash, a local government spokesman said.
US forces in the region are still gathering information, a spokesman said.
The United States, which pledged to defend Japan after its defeat in World War II, has about 54,000 US troops in the country, most of them on the strategically important southern island chain, amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the China Sea. South.
A Japanese coast guard ship is conducting a search and rescue operation around the location of a US military Osprey aircraft believed to have crashed in the sea off Yakushima Island on November 29, 2023. AP
The crash happened shortly before 3pm with witnesses saying the plane’s left engine appeared to be on fire as it descended, media reported.
Japan, which also operates the Osprey aircraft, said on Wednesday it had no plans to ground the aircraft but had asked the US military to investigate the crash.
Developed jointly by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, the Osprey can fly like helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and is operated by the US Marines, the US Navy and the Japan Self-Defense Force.
A coast guard spokesman said it had deployed a patrol boat and aircraft to a location off the Japanese island of Yakushima, but had no further details on the incident, including the status of those on board. LightRocket via Getty Images An Aviation Boatswains Mate (Bottom) signals to the pilot of an MV-22 Osprey attack support aircraft, assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, as it approaches to land on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) on June 7, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial, with critics saying it is prone to accidents. The US and Japanese military said it was safe.
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 Japanese island of Okinawa in December 2016, prompting the US military to ground the plane.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
