Alert in Japan for two military helicopters down in the Pacific: seven are missing

TOKIO.- Two helicopters of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (Army) were involved in a accidentwhile participating in some maneuvers in the Peaceful. The fact left seven missing y a deadas reported this Sunday by the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

The two SH-60K model helicopters, each with a crew of four, respectively they lost contact with the command center between 22:38 and 23:04 local time on Saturday (between 13:38 and 14:04 GMT on Saturday).

Las Self Defense Forces They undertook the search for the aircraft in the area where their communication was lost, to the east of the Izu Islands (south of Tokyo)and findn remains of the helicoptersAccording to the Japanese Minister of Defense, Minoru Kihara in statements to local media.

Eight aircraft crew rescued in Japan

For now Only one of the eight crew members has been rescued.s, while the rest continue to be searched by a device of eight ships and five aircraft of the Japanese forces, plus two other Japanese Coast Guard vessels.

The Ministry believes that The two aircraft would have collided with each other while participating in night practices anti-submarine weapons in those waters, and continues to investigate the exact causes of the accident.

The Japanese authorities They rule out that any other country could have been involved in the accident, since at the time it occurred no foreign vessels or aircraft were detected in those waters.

In April of last year, a UH-60JA helicopter belonging to Japanese troops crashed in the waters of the Okinawa archipelago, southwest of Japan, leaving a dozen dead.