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US military aircraft crashes into ocean off Japan

November 29, 2023

Officials said at least one person died when the Osprey aircraft crashed with six people on board into the ocean near a Japanese island.

https://p.dw.com/p/4ZYkp
A US Navy Sailor assigned to amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) directs the landing of an MV-22 Osprey
The aircraft has the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of a helicopter, but also has speed and rangeImage: U.S. Marines/Zuma/picture alliance

A US Osprey military aircraft with six people on board crashed on Wednesday off the coast of Japan, the coast guard said, with at least one person confirmed dead.

The aircraft has something of a troubled history, with several fatal crashes over the years.

What we know so far

Officials had received an emergency call from a fishing boat near the crash site. It was not immediately clear which US base the Osprey belonged to, although it was believed to be heading from the Iwakuni US base in the Yamaguchi region to the Kadena base in Okinawa.

Details about what happened to the aircraft were not immediately known, the coast guard said. Officials had earlier said there were eight people on board.

"We received information at 2:47 p.m. (0547 GMT/UTC) today that the US military's Osprey crashed off Yakushima Island," a spokeswoman told the AFP news agency. 

The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft that combines the vertical takeoff, hovering and landing capabilities of a helicopter with the long-range, fuel efficiency and speed characteristics of a turboprop aircraft.

It has been deployed in transportation and medical evacuation operations over Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Kuwait.

Yakushima lies south of Japan's southernmost main island Kyushu.

Osprey's troubled history 

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki told reporters that he would ask the US military to suspend all Osprey flights in Japan. Nearly half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan are based in Okinawa. 

The aircraft has something of a troubled history, with several fatal crashes over the years.

Another Osprey crashed in northern Australia in August during a military exercise for locally based troops. Three US marines among 23 on board died in that incident on Melville Island, north of Darwin.

Four US Marines were killed in Norway last year when their MV-22B Osprey aircraft crashed during NATO training exercises.

Three Marines died in 2017 when an Osprey clipped the back of a transport ship and crashed while trying to land at sea off Australia's north coast.

Another 19 Marines died in 2000 when their Osprey crashed during exercises in Arizona.

rc/fb (AFP, Reuters, AP)