1 dead, 7 missing after Japanese navy helicopters crash in Pacific Ocean during training
Two Japanese navy helicopters carrying eight crew members crashed in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo during a nighttime training exercise, after possibly colliding with each other, Japan’s defense minister said.
One crew member was recovered from the waters but was later pronounced dead. Rescuers were searching for the remaining seven.
The two SH-60K choppers belonging to Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force, carrying four crew each, lost contact late Saturday near Tori-shima island, about 370 miles south of Tokyo, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the two helicopters might have collided with each other before crashing into the water, Kihara said.
Rescuers have recovered a flight data recorder, a blade from each helicopter and fragments believed to be from both choppers, all in the same area — signs that the two SH-60Ks were flying close to each other, Kihara said. Officials will analyze the flight data to try to determine what led to the crash.
Japan’s maritime force has deployed eight warships and five aircraft for the search and rescue of the missing crew.
The helicopters, twin-engine, multimission aircraft designed by Sikorsky and known as Seahawks, were on nighttime antisubmarine training, Kihara said. One lost contact at 10:38 p.m. and sent an automatic emergency signal a minute later. The other aircraft lost contact about 25 minutes later.
Only one distress call was heard — another sign the two helicopters were near the same place, because their signals use the same frequency and could not be differentiated, Kihara said.
One chopper was from an air base in Nagasaki, and the other from at a base in Tokushima prefecture.
Japanese officials say the U.S. and Japanese militaries will resume flights of Osprey aircraft in Japan after completing necessary maintenance and training following a fatal crash last November.
The SH-60K is usually deployed on destroyers for antisubmarine missions.
Saturday’s training involved the Japanese navy only and was not part of a multinational exercise, defense officials said. They said no foreign aircraft or warships were spotted in the area.
Japan, under its 2022 security strategy, has been accelerating its military buildup and fortifying deterrence in the southwestern Japanese islands in the Pacific and East China Sea, to counter threats from China’s increasingly assertive military activities. Japan has conducted its own extensive naval exercises in recent years as well as joint drills with the United States and other partners.
Saturday’s crash comes a year after a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force UH-60 Blackhawk crashed off the southwestern Japanese island of Miyako, leaving all 10 crew members dead. In January 2022, one of the country’s Air Self-Defense F-15 fighter jets crashed off its north-central coast, killing two crew.
Japan’s NHK public television said no weather advisories had been issued in the area at the time of Saturday’s crash.
Yamaguchi writes for the Associated Press
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