Part of crashed ASDF training plane found; 2 crew missing
An Air Self-Defense Force training jet with two personnel aboard crashed into a large reservoir shortly after takeoff from a base near Nagoya, central Japan, the government said Wednesday.
The ASDF said it is working to confirm the situation involving the T-4 jet, which disappeared from radar two minutes after departing Komaki Air Base, also in Aichi Prefecture, around 3:06 p.m. en route to a base in southwestern Japan.
Nobody was reported hurt in the vicinity of the accident in Inuyama, a city in the same prefecture.
Police said what appears to be oil was seen floating on the surface of the reservoir, known as Lake Iruka, located some 10 kilometers northeast of the base.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters in Tokyo that part of the jet was found near the crash site, and that the ASDF has set up an investigation committee to determine the cause of the incident.
The two who went missing are both male pilots, a captain and a first lieutenant, Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, chief of staff of the ASDF, told a press conference. But he stopped short of giving further personal details of the pilots.
Uchikura also said the ASDF has decided to suspend T-4 flights for the time being and that the plane involved in the accident has no flight recorders.
The crashed aircraft, which belonged to Nyutabaru Air Base in Miyazaki Prefecture, was manufactured 36 years ago.
The ASDF has 197 T-4s, which are domestically made, two-seat aircraft used primarily to train fighter jet pilots. They are also used by the force's Blue Impulse aerobatic team.
Lake Iruka is known to be one of the country's largest artificial agricultural reservoirs, spanning more than 1 km across at its widest point. On Wednesday, some people were seen bass fishing at the lake.
In recent years, Self-Defense Forces aircraft have been involved in fatal accidents almost every year, such as a crash of a UH-60JA helicopter into waters off an island in the southern prefecture of Okinawa in April 2023, killing all 10 people aboard.
In April last year, two SH-60K patrol choppers, each carrying four crew members, collided during a night submarine detection drill over waters near a remote Pacific island, with no survivors.
© KYODO
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