During a routine night exercise, two SH-60K aircrafts belonging to Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force disappeared from radar screens around Torishima Island located about 600 kilometers south of Tokyo. This was disclosed by Defense Minister Minoru Kihara. Despite that search is underway for the real cause of the incident, it seems likely that these two helicopters crashed into each other before falling into the sea.
In response to this accident, Mr Kihara has ordered the immediate suspension of all SH-60 training flights. Admiral Ryo Sakai, Chief-of-Staff of the Navy also endorsed this decision noting that the suspension will continue until an investigation can reveal what brought down the planes as well as what measures would have prevented such crashes in future.
According to a black box, one piece of rotor blade recovered from each helicopter as well as other wreckage found at the scene, it seems that the two SH-60K choppers were operating nearby. The flight data analysis is currently going on in order to find out what caused the tragedy.
On Sunday, search and rescue operations were intensified with twelve warships and seven aircraft deployed by Maritime Self Defense Force and Air Self Defense Force. Japan Coast Guard also provided boats and planes for the mission.
Seahawks are twin-engined multirole helicopters created by Sikorsky then customized domestically by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. They had been doing anti-submarine exercises over the ocean when contact was lost at 10:38 p.m. local time followed by an emergency signal shortly after. The last known position was approximately 270 kilometers east of Torishima Island.
One chopper came from an airbase in Nagasaki while another hailed from Tokushima Prefecture. Model SH-60Ks are mainly for anti sub-warfare onboard destroyers but they are also used for search and rescue missions. There are about seventy such modified ones in Japan’s fleet.
It is a national exercise where there are no links to any international military drills and reports have not been made about the presence of foreign military in the vicinity.
Japan’s defense strategy which got reviewed in 2022 has concentrated on boosting its defense capabilities specifically around the southwestern islands bordering the Pacific and East China Sea, following China’s increasingly assertive military moves. Japan has recently been conducting naval exercises independently as well as with partners like the United States.
This recent crash echoes another one that happened while UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter belonging to Ground Self-Defense Force was overflying Miyako Island resulting into breakdown of an engine and death of all 10 crew members. Before this time, a 2017-era Japanese navy SH-60J Seahawk crashed during night training off Aomori reportedly due to pilot error.
Similarly, a similar incidence occurred during night training near Amamioshima on July 2021 when two SH-60s collided damaging rotor blades but without any deaths recorded.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force introduced safety measures after the 2021 collision which Admiral Sakai says had they been fully implemented, would have prevented this latest accident.
According to the Navy, a MH-60S Seahawk crash during training off the coast of California in 2021 in America was found to have been caused by mechanical failure as a result of non-detected maintenance damage.
NHK, Japan’s NHK public television reported that there were no weather warnings at the time of this latest accident.
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(Source: AP News, Associated Press)
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