5 bodies found in wreckage of US military plane that crashed off Japan’s coast

By Alperen Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) – Five bodies and the wreckage of a US military plane that crashed last week in the sea off Japan have been found, the US Air Force said on Monday.

This came as the round-the-clock search and rescue efforts, involving divers, continued after the crash of a US Air Force CV-22 near Yakushima Island in the Kagoshima Prefecture last Wednesday, Kyodo news agency reported.

Local coast guard and fishermen have recovered some fragments of the wreckage from the Osprey aircraft, which went down during a training exercise near the island. These pieces have been handed over to the US military.

The cause of the accident is yet to be identified.

Last week, the Japanese Coast Guard confirmed the crash of the Osprey CV-22 transport aircraft off the coast of Yakushima Island in southwestern Japan.

The aircraft went off the radar five minutes before crashing and was operating from Yokota Air Base in the western suburbs of Tokyo.

Japan’s Defense Ministry asked the US military to “confirm its Ospreys are safe to fly before allowing them to operate again in Japan.”