Japan Press Weekly

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2017 December 20 - 2018 January 9 [US FORCES]

US military helicopter makes emergency landing on Okinawa beach

A U.S. UH-1 military helicopter stationed at the U.S. Futenma base in Okinawa on the evening of January 6 made an emergency landing at a sandy beach, only 100 meters away from residential areas, on Ikei-jima Island in the prefecture.

The Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau announced that four crewmembers were on board and that no injury was reported. The U.S. military has yet to make public detailed information about the cause of the incident.

Later on the same day, Japanese Communist Party parliamentarian Akamine Seiken and two JCP local assembly members went to the accident site to gather information firsthand.

On Ikei-jima Island, in January last year, a U.S. AH-1Z helicopter based also at the Futenma base made a forced landing on a farm road. In the past three months, CH-53E helicopters of the Futenma base repeatedly caused accidents: One of them burst into flames on private land in the prefecture and other CH-53Es in separate incidents dropped parts on the premises of a childcare center and an elementary school near the Futenma base.

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In the afternoon of January 8, the U.S. military carried away the UH-1 helicopter to its facility nearby. With the local police roping off the accident site to keep local residents and reporters out in accordance with U.S. instructions, a U.S Marine Corps helicopter suspending the accident-hit chopper flew away amid strong wind and rain.

Past related articles:
> Okinawa Gov. Onaga lodges with central government protest against window dropped from US military copter [December 14-16, 2017]
> Okinawans raise outcry against CH-53E copter crash in Takae [October 14 &16, 2017]
> US military copter makes emergency landing on farm road in Okinawa [January 22&24, 2017]