January 28, 2020

The Defense Ministry on January 25 announced that a U.S. MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet flagship Blue Ridge crashed in the ocean approximately 180 kilometers off the east coast of Okinawa.

In the wake of the crash, Okinawa Governor Tamaki Denny on January 27 at the prefectural office building said to the press, “Such repetition of crashes is impermissible.” He went on to say that he will urge the U.S. military to determine the cause of the crash and take thorough measures to prevent a recurrence.

Governor Tamaki said with anger, “As fishing boats and other civilian ships could have been severely affected by the crash, I hope things like this will never happen again.” He added that he will consider making a strong request to the U.S. forces that aircraft of the same type be grounded until the cause of the crash is determined.

Over recent years, crashes involving U.S. military aircraft frequently occurred on the main island of Okinawa and in its surrounding ocean area. Regarding accidents on the Okinawa main island, for example, a CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopter crashed in the Takae district in Higashi Village in October 2017 and an MV-22 Osprey crashed in the shallow waters off Nago City in December 2016.

As for mishaps in the surrounding sea areas, in 2018, two U.S. fighters crashed in waters off Naha City in September and November, respectively.

Past related articles:
> US carrier-based airplane crashes into sea off Okinawa [November 13, 2018]
> US F-15 crashes into sea off Naha in Okinawa [June 12, 2018]
> Only a week after crash, US military resumes CH-53E flights [October 18 and 19, 2017]
> Okinawa-elected lawmakers protest against Osprey crash in waters off their prefecture [December 15, 2016]