The bodies of the last two crew members and the wreckage of an Air Self-Defense Force airplane have been found on a cliff in Mount Takakuma, Kagoshima Prefecture, defense officials said Friday.
The discovery brought the three-day search to a tragic end. On Thursday, the bodies of the other four crew members were spotted near the cliff, about 600 meters east of the Ontake summit, one of the mountain's main peaks, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said at Tokyo news conference Friday morning.
"It's very regrettable that (SDF) members engaged in national defense missions were involved in such an accident. I'm at a loss to find words for the families and related parties," Nakatani said.