US military chopper crashes on Okinawa

TOKYO: A US military helicopter crashed in Japan’s southern island chain of Okinawa on Monday, with one crew member taken to hospital, Japanese police and officials said.
The HH-60 helicopter had four personnel on board, with three confirmed to be safe, a Japanese Defense Ministry official said. The fourth crew member was taken to hospital with unknown injuries.
“The helicopter crashed in Camp Hansen,” he said, referring to a US Marine base.
“Three crew members were confirmed safe, but the status of the fourth is not known.”
There were no reports of injuries on the ground.
Footage by public broadcaster NHK showed what appeared to be burning wreckage in a forested area.
A local police officer told AFP earlier that the first call about the crash was made by a local resident who reported that smoke was rising from the area shortly after 4:00 pm local time.
The base is located on Okinawa, which is home to tens of thousands of US military personnel.
The incident may spark renewed concern among residents of the islands, who are already uncomfortable with the vast US military presence there.
Okinawans have mounted protests against both the US military and its deployment of the controversial Osprey aircraft on the island.
The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft with rotors that allow it to take off like a helicopter and engines that can tilt forward, enabling it to fly like an airplane at greater speed than a chopper.
It has been plagued with safety problems although the US military insists such glitches have been fixed.
The helicopter, which belongs to Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base, was on an unspecified training mission, the statement said. It said the cause of the crash was not known.
Television footage showed smoke rising from a spot in the forest, although it was unclear whether the aircraft was on fire.
Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters that he was told that three of the four crew members on board survived, with a fourth person missing. He said no other details, including the condition of the crew members, were immediately known.
Okinawa prefectural police said there were no reports of injuries or damage outside the base.
The crash comes amid Okinawan opposition to the Marine Corps’ additional deployment of 12 MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft.


About half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan are based on Okinawa under a Japan-US security pact.