Mid-air collision between military helicopters, one dead and seven injured

One person has died and at least seven people are missing after an accident involving two Japanese military helicopters on the open sea on the night from Saturday to Sunday.

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told local media that rescuers had done so identified parts of the aircraft in the sea and it may have involved a collision between the two planes, off the coast of the Izu Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, public broadcaster NHK reports.

The government explained that the helicopters were conducting nighttime exercises to simulate an attack on submarines: Communications with a helicopter were interrupted at 10:38 p.m , off the coast of Torishima Island, and within a minute a distress signal from the same plane. About 25 minutes later, the military realized that communications with the other vehicle had also been lost .

The Mitsubishi Sh-60K helicopters of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, produced under license from the American company Sikorsky – itself a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin – are mainly deployed on destroyers, and Japan is increasing defense spending by deepening cooperation with the United States , in response to what is interpreted as a growth in China’s assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific.

PRECEDENTS – In April last year, a Japanese army helicopter with ten people on board crashed off the coast of Miyako Island, southern Okinawa, without leaving any survivors.

Last November, another accident involving the US Army Osprey tiltrotor crashed southeast of the Japanese archipelago, killing the 10 pilots on duty – the latest in a series of fatal accidents involving US Boeing aircraft.

The following month, the United States ordered an “operational seizure” of the fleet worldwide for further investigation.

(Unioneonline/fl)

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