US military resumes Osprey flights after crash off Okinawa
The US military in Japan said on Monday it will resume use of its Osprey planes in the afternoon, less than a week after one of the tilt-rotor transport aircraft made a crash-landing off the southern island prefecture of Okinawa.
The cause of the mishap was due solely to the aircraft’s rotor blades coming into contact with the refuelling line
The US military has said the accident, which occurred during aerial refuelling training, was not caused by any problem with the aircraft itself.
“We are highly confident in our assessment that the cause of the mishap was due solely to the aircraft’s rotor blades coming into contact with the refuelling line,” said US Forces, Japan Commander Lieutenant General Jerry Martinez in a statement released on Monday.
The move by the US military fueled anger among local people who want the aircraft to remain grounded amid safety concerns.
Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga called the Japanese government’s approval of the flight resumption “outrageous”. The Okinawa prefectural government had urged the central government to oppose the resumption of Osprey flight operations.
The US military’s decision to resume Osprey flight operations came after consultations between senior US and Japanese officials, it said.
While the Japanese government is scheduled to hold on Thursday a ceremony marking the return to Japanese control of a large chunk of a major US military training area in the prefecture, the Okinawa governor has said he will not attend it.
Okinawan people are also calling for cancelling or postponing the event itself over the crash-landing incident. Roughly half of the Northern Training Area in the villages of Kunigami and Higashi will be returned, but Ospreys are expected to operate in the remaining training area.
