2023-11-30T19:26:24+00:00
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/ The Coast Guard in Japan announced, on Thursday night, that no indications had yet been detected regarding seven members of the US Air Force who went missing when a US Osprey military plane crashed yesterday, Wednesday, near Yakushima Island in southern Japan.
One person was found unconscious at sea and was later pronounced dead after the plane crashed on Wednesday, but none of the seven others on board were found either.
The Coast Guard said in a statement more than 24 hours after the incident, “No evidence related to the missing persons was obtained.”
The statement said that rescue teams conducted a diving search operation on Thursday after sonar detected an underwater object, “but only rocks were found at the bottom of the sea,” adding that the operation would continue on Friday.
The plane crashed with eight people on board. The Japanese Defense Minister said that he asked US forces in the country to suspend Osprey flights following the fatal accident.
The US Air Force Special Operations Command confirmed that the plane was on a “routine training mission” outside Yokota Air Base in Japan, and that “the cause of the accident is currently unknown.”
Photos released by the Coast Guard showed what appeared to be a capsized yellow life raft and other debris in the waters off Yakushima.
Other photos later showed what appeared to be parts of the plane.
An emergency management official in Kagoshima Prefecture told AFP, “The police received a report that the left engine of an Osprey plane was on fire.”
The Japanese NHK channel quoted a witness as saying, “She saw the Osprey flying toward Yakushima Airport, before it began to spin (around itself) once or twice. After that, the orange light went off… and barely ten seconds had passed before it fell into the ocean.”
Yakushima Island is located south of Kyushu Island, in the far south of Japan.
Six ships and two aircraft participated in the major search operation on Thursday, in addition to police and local rescuers.