With one crew member declared deceased and two navy helicopters appearing to have collided over the weekend, a significant search and rescue effort for seven missing persons was underway off the coast of Japan on Monday.
Late on Saturday, the four-person crews of the SH-60K helicopters were doing submarine location exercises off the Pacific Ocean’s Izu Islands.
With assistance from the coastguard and the Air Self-Defense Force, ten ships and five planes from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force were scouring the waterways, an official from the navy station told AFP.
“We have a 24-hour operation for the search, which took place all day and all night,” the navy officer said.
Soon after the incident rescuers found one person who was later confirmed dead, along with debris and flight recorders, but there was no trace of the seven missing crew.
“It is a matter of the utmost regret that we lost our important personnel as they engaged in a very tough, late-night training which was conducted in order to fullfil their duties,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a televised legislative committee session on Monday.
According to Minoru Kihara, the minister of defense, there is currently no information from the flight recorders indicating that there are any technical issues with the aircraft.
Ryo Sakai, the chief of staff of the Navy, canceled his scheduled trip to China to attend the Western Pacific Naval Symposium.
At 10:38 p.m. on Saturday, off the island of Torishima, communication was lost with one of the helicopters. A minute later, the broadcaster NHK stated, this aircraft sent out an emergency signal.
The military discovered that contact with the other aircraft had also been lost in the same region around 11:04 p.m.
Ten people were on board a Japanese army UH-60JA helicopter when it crashed off the southern Okinawan island of Miyako last April. Not a single person survived.
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