The U. S. forces in Japan will ground all CH-53E helicopters to confirm their safety after the same type of chopper crash-landed near a U. S. military training area in Okinawa on Wednesday, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said. The minister said…
The U. S. forces in Japan will ground all CH-53E helicopters to confirm their safety after the same type of chopper crash-landed near a U. S. military training area in Okinawa on Wednesday, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said.
The minister said that Maj Gen Charles Chiarotti, deputy commander of U. S. Forces Japan, told him of the decision during their talks in Tokyo on Thursday. An official of the Defense Ministry’s local bureau, meanwhile, said the accident site was found to have been about 300 meters away from residential houses.
The Japanese and U. S. governments apparently decided to act quickly to address local concerns in a bid to minimize any repercussions from the incident with a general election in Japan slated for Oct 22.
The U. S. Marine Corps in Japan separately announced a four-day operational halt for the CH-53E transport helicopters stationed in Okinawa. The southern island prefecture hosts the bulk of U. S. military facilities in Japan.
In Wednesday’s accident, the helicopter caught fire in midair during a training flight and burst into flames as it made an emergency landing near the U. S. Northern Training Area on the main island of Okinawa. None of its seven crew members or local residents was hurt.
The U. S. Naval Safety Center has rated the accident as a most serious “Class A” mishap, saying that a fire broke out in one of the aircraft’s engines, forcing it to make an emergency landing.
