Two Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopters crashed late April 20 during nighttime training near the Izu Islands, killing at least one crew member and leaving seven missing, with the two aircraft believed to have collided, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said.
Speaking at a televised news conference April 21, Kihara said that a crew member who had been found has been pronounced dead.
“I am very sorry that the situation has come to this point,” he said. “As for the other seven, we are doing our best to find and rescue them.”
The identity of the deceased was not immediately released, but Kihara said later on April 21 that the body had been transferred to a hospital in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, for examination.
Kihara said the cause of the crash was being probed after the two SH-60K helicopters’ flight recorders were found and recovered in close proximity to each other, with the defense chief saying that the ministry had determined “that there is a high possibility of a collision.”
Training flights with the SH-60K helicopters – which are mainly operated from destroyers – have been suspended, he added.
Contact was lost with the helicopters, each carrying four crew, in an area about 270 kilometers east of Torishima in the Izu Island chain. (The Japan Times)
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