A US armed forces plane crashed this Wednesday with eight crew members on board off the coast of Yakushima, in southwestern Japan, Japanese authorities reported.
The Coast Guard received an alert at 2:47 p.m. (6:47 a.m. in Lisbon) about the incident with the plane, which occurred off the Japanese province of Kagoshima.
The health status of the eight crew members is still unknown.
The aircraft had taken off from the North American base of Iwakuni, in the municipality of Yamaguchi, and was heading to the Kadena base, in the Okinawa archipelago, where most of the United States military installations in Japan are located.
The device, a Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, capable of performing the functions of a helicopter and an airplane, was manufactured by the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the helicopter specialist Bell.
The Osprey has long been the subject of debate due to a series of fatal accidents involving this type of aircraft, the most recent occurring in late August in which three US Marines died in northern Australia.
Source: TSF
