An Osprey military aircraft belonging to the United States carrying eight crew members crashed on Wednesday off the coast of Japan, according to the coastguard.
A spokeswoman informed a news agency, “We received information at 2:47 pm (0547 GMT) today that the US military’s Osprey crashed off Yakushima Island.”
She added, “We were also notified that eight crew members were on board. There is no further information at the moment.”
Thankfully, no casualties have been reported so far.
Yakushima Island is situated south of Japan’s southernmost main island, Kyushu.
According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, the Osprey departed from the Iwakuni US base in the Yamaguchi region and was en route to the Kadena base in Okinawa.
NHK also cited defence ministry sources stating that the aircraft was a CV-22 Osprey linked to Tokyo’s US Yokota air base.
The tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft has a troubled history, marked by a series of fatal crashes over the years.
Just four months ago, a plane crash in northern Australia claimed the lives of three US Marines among the 23 on board.
