A military aircraft, the US Osprey, carrying eight individuals, crashed on Wednesday (Nov 19) near the Japanese coast, the coastguard said as reported by AFP.
“We received information at 2:47 pm (0547 GMT) today that the US military’s Osprey crashed off Yakushima Island,” a spokeswoman told AFP.
“We were also notified that there were eight crew members on board,” she added. “There is no further information at the moment.”
Japanese broadcaster NHK revealed that a US Osprey, taking off from the Iwakuni US base to the Kadena base, crashed near Japan.
A troubled history
The CV-22 Osprey belonged to the US Yokota air base in Tokyo, as per defence ministry sources. The Osprey has a troubled history, marked by fatal crashes, including incidents in Australia and Norway.
A crash in northern Australia resulted in three US marines’ deaths during a military exercise.
Notably, the Osprey crashed in 2017 off Australia’s north coast, causing the three Marine casualties.
This adds to previous incidents, such as 19 Marines dying in a 2000 crash in Arizona.
This month, a helicopter crash in the Mediterranean killed five US service members during a training exercise, though the aircraft’s origin wasn’t specified.
(More information to follow)
(With inputs from agencies)
