1 person confirmed dead after US Osprey crash, Japan’s coast guard says

1 person confirmed dead after US Osprey crash, Japan’s coast guard says
By ALEX WILSON, KELLY AGEE AND HANA KUSUMOTO
STARS AND STRIPES • November 29, 2023
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2023-11-29/osprey-tiltrotor-crash-japan-12200751.html
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan – An unconscious person recovered in waters where a Yokota-based Osprey went down Wednesday afternoon has been confirmed dead, according to the Japanese coast guard.

The individual was found alongside an empty life raft and what appeared to be aircraft wreckage, a spokesman for the 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters told Stars and Stripes that evening.

The person was discovered unconscious and not breathing at 4:41 p.m., about 1 ½ miles from Port Anbo on Yakushima, an island in Kagoshima prefecture, the spokesman said.

First responders provided CPR as the individual was taken to Port Anbo, where a doctor confirmed the death at 5:20 p.m., according to the coast guard.

It’s customary in Japan for some government officials to speak to the media on condition of anonymity.

A CV-22 assigned to Yokota disappeared from radar at 2:40 p.m., according to a spokesman for the Kyushu Defense Bureau, an arm of Japan’s Ministry of Defense.

A witness reported seeing the Osprey go down around 2:47 p.m., according to the coast guard. The service said the aircraft was carrying six people, correcting its earlier report of eight onboard.

However, the Associated Press reported the Osprey was carrying eight crew and is an Air Force aircraft, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. While the Marine Corps flies most of the Osprey aircraft that are based in Japan, the Air Force also has Ospreys deployed there.

The coast guard deployed six patrol boats and three aircraft for the search, the spokesman said. Six more boats were sent by the town of Yakushima.

“We’re looking into the incident for more information before we give any details,” a spokesman for Yokota’s 374th Airlift Wing, Staff Sgt. Ryan Lackey, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday afternoon.

The wing referred subsequent questions to U.S. Forces Japan, also based at Yokota, which did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment that evening.

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara ordered his officials and Self-Defense Forces to work with the coast guard in the search-and-rescue efforts, the defense bureau spokesman said. Self-Defense Force aircraft have since joined those efforts.

The ministry is also requesting that the U.S. military provide additional information about the accident, the spokesman said.

Yokota has been home to a squadron of Air Force CV-22 Ospreys since 2018.

Wednesday’s incident comes just three months after three Marines were killed when their MV-22B Osprey went down off Australia’s Northern Territory on Aug. 27. There were 23 aboard that aircraft.

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report.