A US V-22 Osprey carrying six people crashed into the sea off the western coast of Japan on Wednesday (November 29), killing at least one crew member and the condition of two others fished out of the water is still unknown.
The incident happened just before 15:00 local time (06:00 UTC), with witnesses saying that the Osprey's left engine appeared to be on fire as it approached an airport for an emergency landing, despite clear weather and light wind.
The Japanese Coast Guard told reporters that it found what appeared to be wreckage from the tilt-rotor aircraft. A representative of a local fisheries cooperative also said that half of the aircraft's crew - the deceased person and two others - were found some 3 kilometers off of Yakushima island by fishing boat crews.
Another Osprey which was flying alongside the stricken aircraft landed safely at Yakushima's airport on Wednesday afternoon at around the same time as the crash.
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Second Osprey Accident This Year
The US has about 54,000 military personnel in Japan, many of which deployed in the strategically important southern island chain, amid growing Chinese military aggression in the South China Sea, Reuters reported.
Yakushima is an island of Japan's Kagoshima prefecture, some 1,040 km southwest of Tokyo. It is known for its World Heritage-accredited wildlife and forests.
Aside from the US Marines and the US Navy, Japan operates the Osprey, and Wednesday's crash does not discourage Japanese military officials from continuing to keep its fleet of aircraft airborne.
A crew member of an MV-22 Osprey assault support aircraft, assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, is pictured on the flight deck onboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) on June 7, 2022, during the BALTOPS 22 Exercise in the Baltic Sea. - BALTOPS 22 is the premier maritime-focused exercise in the Baltic Region. The exercise, led by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, and executed by the NATO Naval Striking and Support Forces, provides a unique training opportunity to strengthen the combined response capability, critical to preserving the freedom of navigation and security in the Baltic Sea.
The V-22 Osprey was jointly developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopter as an aircraft that could take off and land like a helicopter but could also fly like a fixed-wing aircraft. It has been a controversial aircraft as critics say it is prone to accidents despite the US and Japanese militaries saying it was safe.
Another Osprey crashed off the coast of northern Australia last August while transporting troops during a routine military exercise, killing three US Marines.
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