Accident
Two Japanese Navy helicopters crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday evening. A search is underway.
Two Japanese Navy helicopters crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday evening, apparently after colliding with each other. The Minister of Defense, Minoru Kihara, announced this on Sunday morning. The body of one crew member was found, seven others are still missing.
Contact with the two helicopters was lost on Saturday evening during a nighttime anti-submarine exercise some 270 kilometers east of Torishima island in the Izu archipelago, south of Tokyo. With the first helicopter this happened at 10.38 pm local time (3.38 pm Belgian time), with the second at 11.04 pm (4.04 pm Belgian time). At 10:39 p.m., the Navy received a distress signal.
These are type SH-60K aircraft, each with four crew members on board. As a result of the incident, the Japanese Navy has temporarily suspended all further training with SH-60K helicopters.
Black boxes
A search operation is underway involving eight Navy ships and five Navy planes and two Coast Guard boats, Kihara said. In addition to one fatality, two flight recorders (black boxes) “in locations extremely close to each other” were found in the area, as well as parts of two rotors and other debris.
Navy commander Admiral Ryo Sakai stressed there was no evidence that other countries were involved in the accident.
In April last year, a Japanese Army UH-60JA helicopter crashed into the sea near Okinawa. Ten people were killed. (blg)
