Military training plane crashes in central Japan, 2 crew members missing

A Japanese air force training plane has crashed shortly after taking off from a base in central Japan

TOKYO -- A search was launched on Wednesday for two crew members reported missing after a Japanese air force training plane crashed soon after take off.

The T-4 training plane belonging to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force had taken off from Komaki Air Base, in the central Japanese prefecture of Aichi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

The force said the plane was lost from radar two minutes after taking off. The authorities are searching for the missing aircraft and its crew in an area near a reservoir known as the Iruka pond, officials said. The reservoir is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of the air base, near the city of Inuyama.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters that parts of the aircraft have been found at the crash site. He said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Witnesses told the NHK national broadcaster that they heard a loud noise like thunder, followed by sirens of police cars and fire engines.

The T-4 plane, which operates out of Nyutabaru air base, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki, was on an unspecified mission and its flight route could could not be released, defense officials said.

The crash is the latest in a series of defense aircraft accidents in recent years.

In April, 2024, two SH-60K navy reconnaissance helicopters crashed during nighttime anti-submarine training near Torishima island, about 600 kilometers south of Tokyo, leaving all eight crewmembers dead.

In 2023, an army UH-60JA Black Hawk helicopter on a reconnaissance mission crashed off a southern island of Miyako, with the loss of 10 crew.

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