US Osprey makes emegency landing in Japan

A US Osprey military aircraft made an emergency landing on Thursday in northern Japan, the latest in a string of mishaps and accidents involving the controversial tilt-rotor plane.

The pilot contacted Hanamaki Airport in Iwate prefecture, saying that they wanted to land due to a technical glitch, an official at the airport told AFP.

The aircraft landed without incident and the crew did not request emergency medical assistance, he said.


Officials from US Forces Japan could not be reached for immediate comment.

Television footage from Hanamaki Airport showed a few uniformed US military personnel standing outside the parked aircraft.

National broadcaster NHK also showed a video of the Osprey making a vertical landing at Hanamaki.

The Hanamaki airport official said the incident did not impact the operation of the airport.

Ospreys can take off and land vertically like a helicopter and rotate their propellers forward to fly like a plane.

The aircraft has been involved in accidents and several deadly crashes, including one off southern Japan in 2023 when all eight people on board were killed. The fatal crash prompted the US military to ground the aircraft worldwide.

Regional Japanese military personnel were heading to Hanamaki to study the latest incident, a defence official told AFP.