The U.S. Marine Corps resumed deployment of the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey aircraft on Aug. 12 to Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, one week after a different military rescue helicopter crashed in a mountainous area of Camp Hansen, heightening safety concerns.
After the accident, the Marines announced they were delaying deployment of 10 Osprey aircraft to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture. However, eight of the tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, left Iwakuni at about 8 a.m. on Aug. 12 and arrived at Futenma by about 10:30 a.m., angering local officials.
“I called for a review of deployment plans for close to a year so I feel totally powerless because there has been absolutely no change in the circumstances,” said Mayor Atsushi Sakima of the densely populated city of Ginowan, where Futenma is located.
For the complete story by the Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo), click here.
