A U.S. military Osprey aircraft made an emergency landing Monday afternoon at a busy airport in western Japan, causing some commercial flight delays, the Defense Ministry said.
An MV-22 Osprey belonging to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture landed at Itami airport, which straddles Osaka and Hyogo prefectures, at around 1:55 p.m. It landed safely and taxied to a parking apron with no injury or structural damage, the ministry added.
The tilt-rotor aircraft, which was on its way to the U.S. Navy's Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture from the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, had sent an emergency message before landing, according to the ministry.
It asked the U.S. side to report details of the incident.
The emergency landing forced Itami airport, one of the primary airports in the country's west, to temporarily close one of its two runways, causing a delay of around 20 minutes for several commercial flights, according to the transport ministry.