Japan said it has asked the United States to suspend all non-emergency V-22 Osprey flights over its territory after one crashed into the sea Wednesday off western Japan, marking the first fatal crash of a U.S. military aircraft. in the country in five years.
The US Air Force said the cause of the mishap 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.
“The occurrence of such an accident causes great anxiety to people in the region… and we are requesting the US side to conduct flights of Ospreys deployed in Japan after these flights are confirmed to be safe,” said the Japan’s Defense Minister Minoru Kihara in parliament. Thursday.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF), which also operates Ospreys, will suspend flights of the transport planes until the circumstances of the incident are clarified, another Defense Ministry official said.
A Japanese coast guard helicopter and patrol boat conduct a search and rescue operation in the waters where the Osprey military plane crashed off the coast of Yakushima Island in Japan on Nov. 30, 2023. AP
Speaking to reporters later that night, Kihara confirmed reports that the US military was still operating its Ospreys, saying that Japan’s regional defense office had counted 20 landings and takeoffs of Ospreys around US bases at 3: 30 pm on Thursday.
A spokesman for the U.S. military in Japan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Our focus is on ongoing search and rescue operations, and we pray for a safe return,” Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, said in a post on X.
A Japan Coast Guard ship and a helicopter conduct a search and rescue operation at the site where the U.S. military aircraft MV-22 Osprey crashed into the sea near western Japan on November 29, 2023. via REUTERS
Witnesses said the plane’s left engine appeared to be on fire as it approached an airport for an emergency landing in clear weather and light 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 U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy and the SDF.
The plane’s deployment to Japan has been controversial, with critics of the US military presence on the southwestern islands saying it is accident-prone. The United States and Japan say it is safe.
Debris believed to belong to the U.S. V-22 Osprey military plane that crashed into the sea is collected off Yakushima Island, western Japan, November 30, 2023. via REUTERS
“It’s very unfortunate and should not happen at all,” Kihara told reporters Thursday afternoon, when asked for his opinion on the accident in the southwestern region of Japan, where U.S. Marines are primarily based.
Japan is home to the largest overseas concentration of American military power, and the country is home to the only forward-deployed American aircraft carrier strike group, its Asian airlift hub, fighter squadrons, and a US Marine Corps expeditionary force. .
In August, a US Osprey crashed off the coast of northern Australia while transporting troops during a routine military exercise, killing three US Marines.
Another crashed into the ocean off the southern island of Okinawa in December 2016, the first such incident in Japan, prompting a temporary grounding of the plane by the U.S. military.
The last fatal crash of a U.S. military plane 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: vtt.edu.vn