Search continues for 2 missing crew of crashed Japan ASDF trainer jet

TOKYO - A search for two missing crew members continued Thursday after a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) training aircraft crashed into a large reservoir in central Japan a day earlier.

Aerial, underwater and ground searches at the crash site at the reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, have recovered broken pieces of the ASDF T-4 trainer jet and some of the crew's equipment, including part of a helmet, Kyodo News reported, citing the Self-Defense Forces.

The ASDF identified the two as Capt. Takuji Ioka, 31, and first Lt. Shota Amitani, 29. Amitani was sitting in the front seat while Ioka was in the back, although it is unclear who was maneuvering the aircraft at the time, as both seats have controllers, the report said.

On Wednesday, the T-4 disappeared from radar two minutes after it took off from Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture at around 3:06 pm local time en route to a base in southwestern Japan, leaving two crew members missing.

The crashed aircraft, which belonged to Nyutabaru Air Base in Miyazaki Prefecture, was manufactured 36 years ago.

An investigation into the case is expected to face difficulties as the aircraft had no flight recorder. The ASDF has grounded other T-4 jets for the time being.

Self-Defense Forces aircraft have been involved in a series of accidents in recent years. On April 20, 2024, two Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60K helicopters collided and crashed during a nighttime drill off the Izu Islands near Tokyo, leaving all eight aboard both choppers dead.

On April 6, 2023, a Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) UH-60JA multipurpose helicopter crashed off the coast of Okinawa's Miyakojima Island, killing all 10 aboard, including the commander of the GSDF's Eighth Division in charge of the defense of southwestern Japan.