The US Air Force declared on Tuesday that all eight airmen aboard a military Osprey aircraft that went down off the coast of Japan are believed to have died.
The Osprey, a fixed-wing turboprop plane with helicopter-like capabilities, vanished on November 29 in the vicinity of Yakushima Island, prompting a fervent search and rescue operation.
The Air Force Special Operations Command stated in a statement that “the US military transitioned search and rescue operations to search and recovery operations,” indicating that survivors are doubtful.
“Of the eight airmen, the remains of three airmen have been recovered, the remains of another three airmen have been located and are in the process of being recovered, and the remains of two airmen are still being located,” added the statement.
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Osprey planes have been involved in several deadly crashes, including one in August that killed three US Marines in northern Australia and another that claimed four lives last year during NATO training operations in Norway.
Nineteen Marines perished in 2000 when an Osprey crashed during drills in Arizona, and three more Marines lost their lives in 2017 when another Osprey crashed off the north coast of Australia.
When an Osprey crash-landed off the coast of Okinawa in 2016, the United States briefly grounded the aircraft, infuriating the local population.
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Japan’s military has stopped deploying its own Ospreys while safety inspections are conducted, according to Defence Minister Minoru Kihara, who announced on Thursday that he had asked the US military to once more pause Osprey flights—apart from search and rescue missions.
But the Pentagon said the following day that only the unit of the crashed CV-22 had stopped flying. It was not immediately clear if that halt was still in effect.
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