U.S. Osprey makes emergency landing at Iwate airport
The pilot contacted Iwate Hanamaki Airport in the prefecture, saying they wanted to land due to a technical glitch, an official at the airport said.
The aircraft landed without incident, and the crew did not request emergency medical assistance, he said.
Officials from U.S. Forces Japan could not be reached for immediate comment.
Television footage from the airport showed a few uniformed U.S. military personnel standing outside the parked aircraft.
National broadcaster NHK also showed a video of the Osprey making a vertical landing at the airport.
The Hanamaki airport official said the incident did not impact the operation of the airport.
Ospreys can take off and land vertically like a helicopter and rotate their propellers forward to fly like a plane.
The aircraft has been involved in accidents and several deadly crashes, including one off southern Japan in 2023 when all eight people on board were killed. The fatal crash prompted the U.S. military to ground the aircraft worldwide.
Regional Japanese military personnel were heading to Hanamaki to study the latest incident, a defense official said.
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