Ospreys’ arrival at Yokota causes anger, fears among residents

April 6, 2018

Tokyo- The arrival of five of the US Air Force's CV-22 Osprey aircraft at the Yokota base in a Tokyo suburb on Thursday triggered anger and fears among nearby residents.

"We must remove the Osprey, often called 'flying coffins,' as soon as possible," Ichiro Hirata, 68, a senior official of a civic group, said in front of the gate of the base.

"A number of people live near the base," he said, adding, "We'll never accept the Osprey deployment."

After the arrival at the Yokota base for a brief stop, the tilt-rotor military transport aircraft will leave for training for two to three months. The CV-22 Ospreys will then be officially deployed at the base as early as this summer.

This will be the first Osprey deployment to a US base in Japan other than at the Marine Corps' Futenma air station in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, where MV-22 Ospreys are deployed.

The US military plans to deploy a total of 10 CV-22 Ospreys at the Yokota base in stages over several years.

While noting that airplanes often fly at low altitudes around the Yokota base, a 50-year-old teacher at a nursery school near the base said, "The noise (from the CV-22s) was so loud."

"I'm worried because there've been news reports about accidents involving Ospreys," she said, adding, "I'll wait and see what'll happen for now."

Yoshikazu Ono, 78, who leads a group of plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking compensation for noise pollution from the Yokota base, said, "I'm concerned about the safety of the Osprey aircraft."

"Although we don't know how the U.S. military will operate the Ospreys, I'm afraid that they'll repeat flights around the base to improve the proficiency of pilots," he added. Jiji Press