An Air Self-Defense Force training aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from an ASDF base in Aichi Prefecture on Wednesday, with the fate of the two people aboard not immediately clear.
“We understand that a T-4 training aircraft belonging to the Air Self-Defense Force crashed shortly after takeoff from Komaki Air Base,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, the government’s top spokesman, told a regular news conference. “Details are being confirmed by the Defense Ministry.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the Self-Defense Forces, as well as local police and fire department officials, were conducting rescue operations for the crew of the jet, which disappeared from radar just after 3 p.m.
Footage taken by local media showed a helicopter hovering around a reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, where debris was seen floating on the surface.
In addition to its training role, the T-4, which is manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, is also used by the ASDF’s Blue Impulse aerobatic team.
There have been a series of accidents involving SDF aircraft in recent years.
In April last year, two Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60K helicopters collided during nighttime training off a remote island near Tokyo, leaving all eight aboard both choppers dead.
That accident happened almost exactly a year after a Ground Self-Defense Force UH60 helicopter crashed off the coast of Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, killing all 10 aboard, including the commander of the GSDF’s Kumamoto-based 8th Division.
