Two More Bodies Found from Wreckage of Crashed Japanese Military Helicopter

This is a very unfortunate accident that cost the life of a Japanese Army Division Commander who was doing his first battlefield circulation around Japan’s southwest islands:

An X marks the spot where a section of the crashed Japanese army helicopter’s fuselage and five bodies were discovered north of Irabu Island on Thursday, April 13, 2023. (Japan Ground Self-Defense Force)

Search parties recovered two more bodies Monday from the submerged wreckage of a Japanese military helicopter that crashed in the East China Sea nearly two weeks ago with 10 aboard, including a lieutenant general.

Four victims’ remains have been brought up since Sunday from the site in 350 feet of water just offshore of Irabu Island, southwest of Okinawa. The UH-60JA Black Hawk of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force disappeared from radar at 3:56 p.m. April 6 during a reconnaissance flight 11 miles northwest of Miyako Airport.

Japanese divers recovered one body Monday morning and the other several hours later, a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. Japanese authorities have yet to identify any of the recovered bodies. 

Just one body remains in a section of the Black Hawk’s fuselage discovered Sunday morning, the spokesman said. The remaining five individuals aboard the helicopter are unaccounted for.

The Black Hawk was on a reconnaissance flight 11 miles northwest of Miyako Airport when it went down with a mixed crew aboard, including Lt. Gen. Yuichi Sakamoto, commander of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s 8th Division; five members of the division’s headquarters staff; four members of the Air Self-Defense Force’s 8th Wing; and a member of Camp Miyako’s security force.

Sakamoto, 55, was appointed division commander March 31. He previously served as commander of the 12th Brigade.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.