Japan Press Weekly

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2014 May 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

Announcement of US military mishap too late: JCP Okinawa

The Japanese Communist Party Okinawa Prefectural Committee on May 7 visited the Okinawa Defense Bureau to protest against an accidental drop of a machine part from a U.S. military aircraft and the delay in acknowledging the accident.

A HH60 military helicopter attached to the U.S. Kadena Air Base, while flying over Uruma City on the night of April 24, dropped a plastic cover of a vent hole which weighs about 113 grams. No damage or injury was reported.

Despite the 1997 Japan-U.S. agreement which obliges the U.S. Forces to notify Japan of any accident immediately after its occurrence, the U.S. informed Japan of the latest drop accident on April 30, six days after the incident.

JCP Okinawa Prefectural Assembly member Nishime Sumie at the meeting with defense officials pointed out that U.S. military aircraft have had similar accidents since last year and said, “Okinawans are wondering what will fall from the sky next.” She called for the suspension of flights of HH60s until the cause of the accident is established, cancelation of night flight training drills, investigation into the reason for the delay in informing Japanese authorities of the accident, abolishment of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, and removal of U.S. bases from Okinawa.

The Okinawa Defense Bureau said that the bureau heard from the Defense Ministry on April 26 that something may have been dropped, but waited to make it public due to the lack of precise information until the Kadena base admitted to the accident on April 30.