New Delhi: A U.S. military Osprey aircraft crashed into the ocean near Japan’s Yakushima island on Wednesday, carrying eight crew members, as reported by Japan’s coast guard.
“We received information at 2:47 pm (0547 GMT) today that the US military’s Osprey crashed off Yakushima Island,” a spokeswoman told AFP.
“We were also notified that there were eight crew members on board,” she added. “There is no further information at the moment.”
Yakushima Island lies to the south of Japan’s southernmost main island, Kyushu. As per Japanese broadcaster NHK, the Osprey took off from the Iwakuni US base in the Yamaguchi region and was en route to the Kadena base in Okinawa.
NHK, relying on details from the defense ministry, reported that the aircraft is a CV-22 Osprey linked to the US Yokota air base located in Tokyo.
The tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft has faced a tumultuous past, marked by a series of fatal accidents spanning several years.
In August, an incident in northern Australia resulted in the tragic deaths of three U.S. marines from the total of 23 individuals on board.
The Boeing MV-22B Osprey experienced a crash on Melville Island, north of Darwin, while participating in a military exercise for troops stationed in the region. Hospital treatment was required for eight other U.S. Marines, with one of them placed in intensive care.
Last year in Norway, four U.S. Marines lost their lives during NATO training exercises when their MV-22B Osprey aircraft crashed.
In 2017, three Marines were killed in an Osprey crash that took place after the aircraft made contact with the rear of a transport ship while attempting to land at sea off the north coast of Australia. Nineteen Marines perished in the year 2000 when their Osprey crashed during exercises in Arizona.
Earlier this month, five U.S. service members were killed in a helicopter crash in the Mediterranean during a training exercise.
Officials did not specify the aircraft’s departure location, but the United States has deployed a carrier strike group to the Mediterranean to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from escalating into a broader regional crisis.
Several other incidents involving crashes of U.S. military aircraft have occurred in recent years, including the September crash of an F-35 stealth warplane in South Carolina, where the pilot successfully ejected.
In April, three U.S. soldiers lost their lives, and another was injured when two helicopters collided during their return from a training mission in a remote area of Alaska.
The month before, two U.S. Army helicopters crashed during a nighttime training exercise in Kentucky, resulting in the tragic deaths of all nine soldiers on board.