The bodies of three crew members from the Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse aerobatic flight team were found Wednesday morning near the wreckage of two planes that went missing Tuesday over Miyagi Prefecture.
Police had been searching for the two aircraft since they disappeared from radar Tuesday morning over the Pacific Ocean.
Miyagi Prefectural Police said the three charred bodies were found in the mountains near the wreckage of one of the missing T-4 trainers in the town of Oshika. A rescue team also found fragments of its companion plane on the south side of Mount Taka in the town.
The site where the planes were found was only 4.5 km away from Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa Nuclear Plant, and ASDF officials said they are investigating the possibility they collided in midair.