A windshield weighing some 90 kilograms fell off from an F-2 fighter jet of the Air Self-Defense Force when it was flying over the city of Asakura in Fukuoka Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon.
According to the Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office, no damage related to the fall of the windshield has been confirmed.
The ministry is searching for the fallen windshield. It is also looking into the cause of the incident and checking if there are any abnormalities in other aircraft.
At around 12:45 p.m., the F-2 jet, based at the ASDF’s Tsuiki base in the town of Chikujo in Fukuoka Prefecture, was scrambled as a plane of unidentified nationality was feared to be violating Japan’s airspace. About five minutes later, the windshield covering the cockpit fell off when the fighter was flying over a mountainous area in Asakura.
The windshield is made of aluminum and acrylic glass. It is about 1.5 meters long, some 90 centimeters wide and around 80 centimeters in height. An emergency ladder weighing about 480 grams also fell from the F-2 jet, which made an emergency landing at the Tsuiki base some 15 minutes after the incident.
The pilot was not injured. Another fighter responded to the unidentified aircraft in place of the troubled jet.
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