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Seven hurt as US military helicopter crashes in sea off Okinawa Seven injured as US military helicopter crashes off Okinawa
(35 minutes later)
All 17 people on board were rescued after a US military helicopter crashed into the sea off Okinawa, the Japanese coastguard has said. Seven people have been injured after a US army helicopter crashed off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
Seven people were injured in the incident. A coastguard spokesman said it was not known how serious the injuries were. The others aboard the helicopter were uninjured, said Japanese coastguard spokesman Shinya Terada. The conditions of the injured were not immediately known, he said.
The national broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo news agency said the accident occurred eight and half miles east of the US Kadena airbase on Japan’s southernmost Okinawa islands. The national broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo news agency said a total of 17 crew members were on board when the accident occurred and that all were rescued.
Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defence alliance. US army Lt Col Kevin Toner said in an email that the army was still gathering facts and that it would provide details later.
Last week Japan said it would temporarily halt work on a new US military base in southern Okinawa as talks continue with local officials opposed to the project. Terada said that after the crash, the damaged helicopter was sitting on a US warship off the eastern coast of Okinawa, which is home to most of the US troops in Japan. He said it was not immediately known whether the helicopter had crashed onto the vessel in a failed landing or if it had been plucked out of the sea after crashing there.
Japan’s defence ministry had said earlier that the helicopter, a UH-60, crashed into the sea about 20 miles east of Kadena Air Base on Okinawa.
Japanese national broadcaster NHK showed video of the helicopter sitting on the warship, with its tail broken off and covered with an orange tarp.
The presence of thousands of US troops on Okinawa – where more than half of about 50,000 American troops in Japan are concentrated – has been a source of friction. A plan formulated in 1996 between the Japanese and American governments would move US Marine Air Station Futenma from a populated neighbourhood to a less developed area, but Okinawans worried about safety, crime and noise want the base moved off the island altogether.
Wednesday’s accident coincided with Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga’s visit to the island for talks with Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga, a vocal opponent of the relocation plan.
“For those who live near [US] bases, it’s a serious matter,” he said at the outset of the talks, reminding Suga of Okinawa’s burden and risk of accommodating the US military bases.