Five more bodies found after horror aircraft crash off Japan

The bodies of five more people have been found after an aircraft crashed into the sea before it was able to make an emergency landing.

The remains of five more crew members and wreckage from a US military aircraft that crashed off Japan last week have been found.

There were eight crew on board the CV-22 Osprey when it crashed off Yakushima island during a routine training mission on Wednesday.

One victim – 24 year-old Staff Sergeant Jake Galliher – was recovered hours after the crash, while US and Japanese rescuers found another five bodies on Monday. Two remain unaccounted for.

“Today, the combined Japanese and United States teams … had a breakthrough when their surface ships and dive teams were able to locate remains along with the main fuselage of the aircraft wreckage,” the US Air Force said in a statement on Monday.

“The dive teams were able to confirm five additional crew members from the original team of eight that were involved with the crash.

“Currently two crew members of the five located today have been successfully recovered by the attending teams. There is an ongoing combined effort to recover the remaining crew members from the wreckage.”

The remains of a US Osprey aircraft that crashed into the sea off the Japanese island of Yakushima on November 29. Picture: AFP / 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters

The aircraft, which can operate like a helicopter or a fixed-wing turboprop plane, requested an emergency landing on Yukushima before crashing offshore.

Witnesses told media they saw fire coming from one of the engines before it fell into the sea.

An emergency management official in the Kagoshima region where the crash took place said police had been told the aircraft had been “spewing fire from a left engine”.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK quoted a local fisherwoman who said she saw the aircraft crash into the sea, sending up a column of water 100 metres into the air.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

US military personnel carry a dinghy as they head out to search. Picture: JIJI Press / AFP

Osprey troubled history

The Osprey has suffered a string of fatal accidents.

A crash over the Tiwi Islands off the Northern Territory in Australia killed three US Marines in August.

The aircraft went down while transporting troops during Exercise Predators Run, a training exercise held in Northern Australia between the United States, Australian, Indonesian, Philippine and Timor Leste militaries.

While three Marines died in the crash, another five were flown to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition.

A US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Picture: Charly Triballeau / AFP

Four more died in another crash in Norway during NATO training exercises last year.

Three Marines were also killed in 2017 when another Osprey crashed off Australia’s north coast and 19 Marines died when their Osprey crashed during drills in Arizona in 2000.

The US temporarily grounded the aircraft in Japan in 2016 after an Osprey crash-landed off Okinawa, sparking anger among locals.

Recovered debris, believed to be part of wreckage, is brought ashore at a port in Yakushima-cho, Kagoshima prefecture on November 30. Picture: JIJI Press / AFP

Japan calls on US to suspend Osprey flights

Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara said last week he had asked the US military to again suspend Osprey flights – except for search-and-rescue operations – and that Japan’s military had halted using its own Ospreys pending safety checks.

But the Pentagon announced that only the unit of the crashed CV-22 had halted flying.

“The United States is taking all appropriate safety measures, as we do for every flight and every operation,” spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said last week.

“The unit of the CV-22 that had the accident is not conducting flight operations. All V22 Ospreys in Japan operate only after undergoing thorough maintenance and safety checks,” Singh said.

“We have already started sharing information about the accident with our Japanese partners, and have pledged to continue to do so in a timely and transparent manner.”