2nd LD Writethru: 1 dead,5 missing as wreckage from Japan's missing ASDF jet found

Japan's Ministry of Defense (MOD) said on Thursday it had found the wreckage of an Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) jet that disappeared from radar a day earlier in a mountainous region in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

Preliminary reports from a senior ministry official had initially stated that the plane's six occupants were found in a "state of cardiac arrest," and were showing no vital signs of life near the site of the wreckage on a mountain in the prefecture, although the Air Staff Office retracted the statement saying that one crew member was found with no vital signs of life, while the other five occupants remain missing, with searches continuing.

According to eye witness reports smoke was seen rising from the mountainous Takakuma area near the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces' (JASDF) Kanoya airbase in Kagoshima Prefecture, according to local reports, but searches were initially hampered on Wednesday by heavy fog and inclement weather, following the plane going off the radar earlier in the afternoon.

The twin-engined U-125 jet, which is 15-meters in length and typically used to check the condition of aircraft navigation facilities, belongs to the Flight Check Squadron at the ASDF's Iruma airbase in Sayama in Saitama Prefecture, the MOD confirmed, adding that the ASDF lost contact with the small plane from its radars at around 2:35 p.m. local time on Wednesday, some 11 km north of the Kanoya airbase.

The plane, captained by an ASDF major, reportedly in his 40s, departed the base shortly after 1 p.m. and was scheduled to return around 4 p.m. Other occupants in the plane included a copilot, 2 radio operations personnel and 2 maintenance officials.

SDF helicopters had been combing the area to find the missing plane, which was flying over an area near Mount Takakuma, at an altitude of about 880 meters, when it disappeared from radar. The search was suspended at around 6:40 p.m.on Wednesday evening due to heavy fog, according to local police, with Japan's weather agency confirming there had been a thick layer of fog above the Kanoya base that afternoon.

In addition, ground forces had set up a base on the mountain, at the halfway point to its peak, as ongoing information was trying to be gathered on the plane's location.

Around 600 search and rescue personnel were deployed to the area, inducing SDF personnel, police and firefighters, to find the missing plane and its occupants.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani had told reporters in a press briefing earlier Thursday that there was every hope the occupants of the downed jet might be found alive.

Last year a Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) helicopter departing from the Kanoya base crashed on a mountain in Miyazaki Prefecture, next to Kagoshima, killing all three of its occupants. Endit