The aircraft were participating in a “nighttime anti-submarine warfare exercise,” said the Japanese Defense Minister. It’s possible that they “collided.”
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The cause of the accident is still unknown. Two Japan Self-Defense Force helicopters crashed into the sea late Saturday evening. A crew member was found dead and seven others are still missing, Japanese authorities announced on Sunday April 21. The devices participated in a “nighttime anti-submarine warfare exercise”, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told the press.
Probable debris from these devices was spotted by sea rescue services, added the minister. He also clarified that the ministry had “discovered the flight recorders in locations close to each other”and that he was therefore “very possible that [les deux hélicoptères] collided.” The helicopters crashed off the coast of the Izu Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Flight recorders being analyzed
“The flight recorders are being analyzed and authorities are questioning the crew of a third helicopter which took part in the exercise but was not involved in the accident”, said the Chief of Naval Staff. Communication with one of the devices was lost at 10:38 p.m. local time. 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.
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.