U.S. Chopper Makes Emergency Landing in Okinawa

September 6, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- A U.S. Marine helicopter has made an emergency landing at an airport in the island of Kumejima in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa.

No one was injured.

The UH-1 helicopter, which belongs to the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan in Okinawa's main island made the landing at Kumejima Airport at around 3:45 p.m. (6:45 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday.

The chopper left Kumejima in about one and a half hours after the landing and arrived at the Futenma air station at around 6:40 p.m.

According to the Defense Ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau, the aircraft landed on the grass near the aircraft parking apron at the airport after a warning light began flashing inside the cockpit.

The helicopter's crew said a trouble occurred in the aircraft's electric system when it was heading for the Torishima range located on an island some 30 kilometers north of Kumejima.

The incident caused delays of two commercial flights operated by Ryukyu Air Commuter, a unit of Japan Airlines. Jiji Press