February 10, 2018

A 5kg-part of a U.S. MV-22 Osprey was found on a beach in Ikei-jima Island in Okinawa on February 9.

Reportedly, the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa admitted that the object was an engine air-inlet part that mistakenly fell from an Osprey aircraft based at the U.S. Futenma Air Station.

Tamaki Masanori, the head of the Ikei-jima islanders' association, said in an Akahata interview, "Poorly maintained aircraft fly overhead routinely. Priority is given to U.S. military operations over our safety. Our residential areas are located only 500 meters from where this part was found. Next time, an aircraft may drop a part or crash on our houses and cause casualties."

On the island, U.S. crash landings occurred in January last year and on January 6 this year. In protest against the latest incident, on the island with a population of 260, 150 people held a rally to protest.

Past related articles:
> Forced landing incident of US military chopper recurs just 2 days after 1st one in Okinawa [January 9, 2018]
> US military helicopter makes emergency landing on Okinawa beach [January 7 and 9, 2018]
> US military copter makes emergency landing on farm road in Okinawa [January 22&24, 2017]