Japanese forces have joined U.S. Navy crewmembers in a search and rescue mission for three service members who remain missing from the scene of an American cargo plane that crashed into the ocean waters off of Japan on Wednesday, November 22.
Eight of the 11 passengers and crew that were on the downed C2-A Greyhound aircraft have been recovered and are reported to be in good shape. The twin-engine plane was traveling from the Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier when the accident occurred 93 miles northwest of Okinotori island, at around 2:45 p.m. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Wednesday's crash comes only weeks after a transport helicopter went down in a ball of flames, about 300 yards from a residential community in Okinawa, Japan. It is the latest of many fatal and near-fatal accidents that have happened this year for the Navy's 7th Fleet.
Back in June, seven service members were killed after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off of Japan's coast. That incident was followed up by the USS John S. McCain's collision with an oil tanker in August. And at least two catastrophic accidents involving guided-missile cruisers happened between Tokyo and South Korea in the preceding months.
Source: washingtonpost.com
