U.S. military Osprey aircraft crashes into ocean off Japan’s coast, nation’s coast guard says

A U.S. navy Osprey plane crashed into the ocean close to the southern Japanese island of Yakushima on Wednesday with eight folks on board, Japan’s coast guard mentioned. The U.S. navy in Japan supplied no speedy touch upon the incident, however Japanese coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa was quoted by the AFP information company as saying the company had acquired an emergency name from a fishing boat reporting the crash.

Ogawa mentioned it was unclear what occurred to the plane or the eight folks believed to have been on board, however coast guard personnel had been heading to the scene.

Japan’s Kyodo Information cited coast guard officers as saying the emergency name got here in round 2:45 p.m. native time (12:45 a.m. Jap), and it mentioned the Japanese Protection Ministry reported the Osprey vanishing from radar screens about 5 minutes earlier than that.

An Osprey can take off and land vertically like a helicopter however then change the angle of its twin rotors to fly as a turbo prop airplane as soon as airborne.

The Japanese authorities approved last year a brand new $8.6 billion, five-year host-nation assist funds to cowl the price of internet hosting American troops within the nation, reflecting a rising emphasis on integration between the 2 international locations’ forces and a give attention to joint response and deterrence amid rising threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

It was not confirmed which U.S. base in Japan the Osprey was flying from, however AFP mentioned it was believed to be heading to Okinawa, in the identical island chain as Yakushima. The U.S. navy’s Kadena Air Base, its most vital and largest base within the area, is in Okinawa.