Japan asks US to refrain from Osprey flights

August 6, 2017

TOKYO-Japan called on the United States on Sunday to refrain from flying its Osprey military aircraft in Japan for the time being following the crash of one of the tilt-rotor aircraft in Australia.

The Japanese government asked the US military to provide more information, investigate the cause of the crash, take steps to prevent its repeat and refrain from Osprey flights in Japan, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.

Japan hopes that the flight suspension will be in place until it receives sufficient explanations from the United States about the cause of the crash, Onodera said.

He said Tokyo also plans to request that the Osprey not participate in a Japan-US joint military exercise set to start in Hokkaido, northern Japan, on Thursday.

The comments by Onodera came after an MV-22 Osprey deployed to the US Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, crashed off the eastern coast of Australia on Saturday. Jiji Press