Japan asked the U.S. to suspend flights of Osprey aircraft until the safety of the type is ensured, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said Thursday, after an Osprey crashed into the sea off Yakushima island in Kagoshima Prefecture the day before with at least one crew member confirmed dead.
The U.S. had not issued a response over the operation of Ospreys at the time of writing.
The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture continued its operation of Osprey aircraft after Wednesday’s incident, causing local residents to voice their concern. Ospreys are also stationed at the U.S. military's Yokota base in Tokyo..
A senior Defense Ministry official said during an Upper House committee on diplomacy and defense on Thursday that the government had confirmed 14 Osprey takeoffs and landings at the Futenma base from the time of the crash through 7 a.m. Thursday.
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Masahisa Sato, a former Ground Self-Defense Force commander, said the government should make sure that the U.S. grounds the Osprey to avoid angering local residents.
“Otherwise, it would have a negative impact on the (Osprey's) deployment in Saga as well as the operation at the Yokota base,” Sato told the parliamentary session.
The GSDF plans to deploy 17 Ospreys to Saga Airport by July 2025, as part of Japan’s island defense strategy. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there are currently no plans to change course. There are currently 14 Ospreys deployed at the GSDF’s Kisarazu base in Chiba Prefecture.
At around 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, a CV-22B Osprey deployed at the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo crashed into the sea off Yakushima with eight crew members on board. A male member was found several kilometers from the crash site. He was rushed to a hospital but was confirmed dead. It is the first death in Japan involving the Osprey.
The U.S. Air Force said the cause of the incident is currently unknown.
The U.S. had initially explained the incident to the Japanese government as an “unplanned landing,” suggesting that the pilot had control of the tilt-rotor aircraft until the last minute, but later rephrased it as a “crash,” Kihara said.
The Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Coast Guard are on an around-the-clock search and rescue mission. Hisashi Matsumoto, parliamentary vice minister of defense, left for Yakushima on Thursday to act as a liaison between the central and local governments.
The GSDF has suspended its Osprey flights until the aircraft's safety is confirmed.
A fisherman who witnessed the crash told NHK that the aircraft rotated once or twice and flashed an orange light before tumbling into the sea about 10 seconds later, creating a 50 to 100-meter-high splash.
Another fisherman said debris was floating in the sea after the crash and that there was a strong smell of fuel.
The Japan Coast Guard found a lifeboat floating on the sea on Wednesday that appeared to have come from the Osprey.
Ospreys are capable of taking off and landing like a helicopter. They have a track record of accidents and incidents both in Japan and abroad, causing concern from local residents over the type's deployment.
In 2016, an MV-22, the variant used by the U.S. Marine Corps, crash-landed off Okinawa. Crashes also occurred in Australia in 2017 and August this year, with each incident leaving three crew members dead.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.