At least one person died when a US military plane crashed into the sea near the island of Yakushima, in southern Japan, the Japanese Coast Guard announced Wednesday.
The device, capable of performing the functions of a helicopter and an airplane, had a crew of six people, the coast guard indicated, correcting the initial estimate of eight people on board.
According to authorities, the search for survivors continues.
The Coast Guard received an alert at 2:47 p.m. (6:47 a.m. in Lisbon) about the incident, which occurred off the Japanese province of Kagoshima.
The aircraft had taken off from the US base in Iwakuni, in Yamaguchi prefecture, and was heading to the Kadena base, in the Okinawa archipelago, where most of the US military installations in Japan are located.
The device, a Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, was manufactured by American aircraft manufacturer Boeing and 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
