(Tokyo) Two Japan Self-Defense Force (JSF) helicopters crashed into the sea late Saturday evening, with one crew member found dead and seven others still missing, Japanese authorities announced Sunday.
The aircraft were participating in a “nighttime anti-submarine warfare exercise,” Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told the press.
“For the moment, the cause (of the accident, Editor’s note) is unknown, for the moment we are giving priority to saving lives.” Probable debris from these devices was spotted by sea rescue services, added the minister.
The Ministry of Defense later confirmed that one crew member had been found but had died, and that seven others were still missing.
According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the helicopters crashed off the coast of the Izu Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Communication with one of the devices was lost at 10:38 p.m. local (Saturday 9:38 a.m. Eastern). About 25 minutes later, authorities realized that communication with the second helicopter had also been lost, according to NHK.
These were two Mitsubishi SH-60Ks, Japanese-made patrol helicopters belonging to the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the naval branch of the FJA.
A year ago, a Japanese military helicopter of another model (UH-60JA) crashed into the sea in the Okinawa area (southwest of Japan), killing its ten occupants.
And in November, an Osprey of the American military forces based in Japan crashed at sea, causing the death of its eight crew members.
This new fatal accident involving this hybrid aircraft – capable of taking off and landing vertically like a helicopter and flying like a plane – had pushed the American army to suspend all flights of its Ospreys around the world for three months, the time to carry out the investigation into the circumstances of this new tragedy.
Osprey flights resumed in early March, including in Japan, after the US military made changes to maintenance and procedures for the aircraft.
Japan, a close ally of the United States, is considerably increasing its defense budget to adapt to growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific, between China’s increasingly assertive territorial claims and repeated threats from North Korea. In the region.