At least one dead as US Osprey crashes in Japan with eight on board

A US military plane crashed Wednesday near a small island off the coast of southern Japan with eight people on board. Japan’s coast guard said at least one of the vessel’s crew had been declared dead.

The plane, a U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey, crashed near Yakushima around 3 p.m., said a spokesman for Japan’s coast guard, which is conducting a rescue operation.

The crash occurred just three months after three U.S. Marines were killed in another Osprey accident during a training exercise in Australia.

Around 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, prefectural police in Kagoshima, where Yakushima is located, received a report that the Osprey, with one of its engines burning, had crashed on a beach near Yakushima airport, said Hiroki Shimano, an official. in the Crisis Management Department of Kagoshima Prefecture.

The plane had lost radar contact before the crash, Hirokazu Matsuno, chief of staff to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said in a news briefing.

On Wednesday around 5:20 p.m., the Japan Coast Guard said a rescue crew found a member of the Osprey crew and that the person was “unconscious and not breathing.” That person was later pronounced dead.

Manufactured by Boeing and Bell Textron, both American aerospace companies, the Osprey is a unique aircraft that can take off and land vertically. The CV-22s, operated primarily by the Air Force, have been stationed in Yokota Air base in Japan since 2018.0

Itsunori Onodera, former defense minister and current lawmaker, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the crash was “a matter of concern.”

“We have requested the Ministry of Defense and the Japan Coast Guard to do their best to rescue the aircraft,” he wrote, adding: “First of all, we must rescue the crew and request a safe flight. I hope the crew is rescued soon.”