Tokyo, 15 May, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s Self-Defense Forces on Thursday continued searching for the two missing crew members of an Air Self-Defense Force training jet that crashed into a large reservoir in central Japan the previous day.
The ASDF identified the two as Capt Takuji Ioka, 31, and 1st Lt Shota Amitani, 29. Amitani was sitting in the front seat, and Ioka was in the back, although it is unclear who was maneuvering the aircraft at the time as both seats have controllers, it said.
Broken pieces of the aircraft and helmets believed to have been worn by the two men have been found at the reservoir, known as Lake Iruka. SDF members began the day’s search in the morning using boats and a helicopter, while local police and rescue workers, including divers, joined the effort.
On Wednesday, the T-4 jet disappeared from radar two minutes after it departed Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture around 3:06 p.m. en route to a base in southwestern Japan.
The investigation into the case is expected to face difficulties as the aircraft had no flight recorder. The ASDF has grounded other T-4 jets for the time being.
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.
Gen Hiroaki Uchikura, chief of staff of the ASDF, said the ASDF has decided to suspend T-4 flights for the time being.
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.
