WORLD
U.S. Osprey crashes off southwestern Japan island: coast guard
Baku, November 29, AZERTAC
A U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying eight people crashed in waters off Yakushima Island in southwestern Japan, Kyodo News reports citing the Japan Coast Guard.
The coast guard received an emergency call about the crash at around 2:45 p.m. According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, the Osprey disappeared from radar around 2:40 p.m.
The coast guard dispatched patrol vessels and aircraft to search the area. The Yakushima airport office in Kagoshima Prefecture said the Osprey may have crashed in an area about 2 to 4 kilometers away from the airport.
What appeared to be parts of the aircraft were spotted off Yakushima Island, according to local firefighters.
Ospreys, capable of taking off and landing like a helicopter but cruising like a plane, have a track record of accidents and mishaps both in Japan and abroad.
In 2016, an MV-22, the variant used by the U.S. Marine Corps, crash-landed off Okinawa, with crashes also occurring in Australia in 2017 and August this year, each time leaving three crew members dead.