TOKYO: The U. S. military said Monday that divers of seven missing team members had discovered “debris” in the waters off southern Japan, where a U. S. Osprey plane crashed last week.
“During a combined U.S.-Japanese search and rescue dive in the vicinity of Yakushima, Japan… remains were discovered along with wreckage from the CV-22 mishap,” the military said in a statement.
Efforts are underway to recover the remains, but “the identities have not yet been decided at this time,” he said.
“The top priority is to get the airmen home and take care of their family members. “
Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, citing unidentified sources, said earlier on Monday what appeared to be the front part of the aircraft, possibly including the cockpit, had been found.
He also cited reports that bodies had been recovered.
The tiltrotor CV-22B Osprey crashed off Yakushima Island on Wednesday with eight other people on board. The body of a team member was found the same day.
Japanese spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno declined to comment on NHK’s report that more bodies had been found.
“The search and rescue operation is continuing 24 hours a day,” Matsuno said.
“At this point, my opinion is that he didn’t save the remaining seven people. “
The Osprey, which can function as a helicopter or turboprop plane, has suffered a number of fatal accidents.
A twist of fate in northern Australia killed three U. S. Marines in August, while four others were killed in some other accident in Norway during NATO educational exercises last year.
Three Marines were also killed in 2017 when another Osprey crashed off Australia’s northern coast and 19 Marines were killed when their Osprey crashed training in Arizona in 2000.
The United States grounded the plane in Japan in 2016 after an Osprey crashed off the coast of Okinawa, sparking anger among locals.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said on Thursday that he had asked the U. S. military to suspend return flights from Osprey (for search and rescue operations) and that the Japanese military had stopped using its own Ospreys pending security checks.
An emergency official in the Kagoshima region, where the crash occurred, said police had been informed that the plane was “spitting fire position from the left engine. “
NHK quoted a local fisherwoman as seeing the plane crash into the sea, sending a 100-meter (330-foot) column of water into the air.
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