A small glider clipped a tanker Sunday and crashed into the sea near Onahama port in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. The plane's pilot was killed.
Around noon Sunday the aircraft collided with the handrail of the stairs of the tanker, which was anchored offshore, local police said.
The local office of the Japan Coast Guard Office dispatched patrol boats, which found the wreckage of a plane in the sea about 200 meters away from the port's breakwater.
The deceased, whose body was retrieved, was identified as 46-year-old Masami Watanabe of Showa, Saitama Prefecture, the president of a construction firm.
The 2,230-ton Zeus, a liquid propane gas tanker, was undamaged except for a bent handrail, investigators said.
Thick fog surrounded the site and visibility was poor, according to the police. Fukushima Local Meteorological Observatory had issued a heavy-fog warning beginning Saturday night.