Japan Press Weekly

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2017 August 30 - September 5 [US FORCES]

Osprey emits unreported smoke the day before its emergency landing

It was found out that a USMC MV-22 Osprey, which made an emergency landing on August 29 at Oita Airport in Kunisaki City in Oita, had emitted white smoke at another place the day before.

The white smoke was emitted from the aircraft at the USMC Iwakuni base in Iwakuni City in Yamaguchi on August 28. U.S. fire engines were immediately dispatched to the site. Nevertheless, the U.S. military did not inform surrounding municipalities and the local firefighting headquarters of this incident, Akahata learned.

According to eyewitnesses, the MV-22 suddenly emitted white smoke like that after an explosion at the Iwakuni base whose runway is co-used with the civil airport of Iwakuni Kintaikyo.

A liaison council consisting of administrative authorities concerned has guidelines requiring the U.S. Forces Japan and the Self-Defense Forces to immediately contact local authorities to report accidents.

However, an Iwakuni City official in charge of the base issue told an Akahata reporter that the city has not heard anything about the incident. The local firefighter head office also said, “There has been no report.”

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On September 1, it came to light that the same aircraft had another emergency landing at Iejima Auxiliary Airport in Okinawa in June of this year.

Japanese Communist Party member of the Iejima Village Assembly, Naka Minoru said to Akahata, “The Osprey is a faulty aircraft. Will the central government continue to allow such faulty aircraft to fly over the heads of Japanese people and Okinawans? Ospreys should be removed from Japan.”

The Okinawa prefectural government demanded that the USMC and the Okinawa Defense Bureau suspend Osprey flights until the causes of accidents are confirmed.

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Representatives of the Oita Prefectural Committee of the Japanese Communist Party and of the Oita Peace Committee on August 30 jointly made representations to Oita Governor Hirose Katsusada demanding that the governor urge the central government to ban flights of the same model aircraft.

They lodged a protest against the U.S. military for allowing the flight of the aircraft which had malfunctioned the day before and against the Japanese government for continuing to allow the flights of MV-22s which are known to be accident prone.

The MV-22 in question is still at Oita Airport, as of 5 p.m. of August 30. A woman in her 70s living near the airport said, “I feel scared to know that that is an accident-prone defective airplane is here. I don’t want Ospreys to come here.”