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Japan's Okinawa governor to ask suspension of Ospreys after a deadly crash in Hawaii

Xinhua, May 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japan's Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga said Monday that he will demand suspension of Osprey flights after a deadly crash of a U.S. Marine Corp's MV-22 Osprey aircraft in Hawaii, local media reported.

"The U.S. should suspend Osprey flights until the cause of the accident is determined," Onaga said, expressing concern over the safety of the tilt-rotor aircraft.

In Okinawa, 24 MV-22 Ospreys have been deployed at Futenma Air base, sparking strong protests from local people. They believe that the vertical take-off Osprey has a poor safety record and poses danger to inhabitants there.

However, more Ospreys are set to be deployed at more locations in Japan. According to Japanese government official, the U.S. military will deploy CV-22 Osprey aircraft, the Air Force variant of the MV-22, at Yokota Air Base in a Tokyo suburb beginning in 2017. Japan's Self-Defense Forces are also planning to deploy 17 Ospreys at Saga airport in southwestern Japan from fiscal 2019.

Opponents around Japan strongly condemn those plans. Hiroshi Ashitomi, a co-leader of a civic group opposed to the relocation of the Futenma Marine air base to a coastal area in Nago on the same island, called the transport aircraft "defective", adding they should not be deployed anywhere in Japan.

Jungen Tamura, a city assembly member in Iwakuni, where Ospreys traveling to and from Futenma stop at a marine base, said, "I am worried about the increased number of Osprey flights. I would like to oppose them strongly."

Michio Fukumoto, head of a plaintiffs' group in a Yokota base noise-pollution suit, said, "The government has to first consider protecting the lives of the citizens and somehow stop the deployment." Endi