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| Japanese Super King Air: LR-2 reconnaissance aircraft (Image: Wiki Commons) |
TOKYO, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Japan's defense ministry confirmed Tuesday that all four male crew members on board a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) aircraft that crashed a day earlier in a mountainous region of Hokkaido in northern Japan were dead.
Wreckage of the plane was discovered earlier Tuesday by search and rescue officials and debris from the plane was scattered over a wide area of land about three km from the peak of Mt. Hakamagoshi in the city of Hokuto in Hokkaido.
Bodies of the crew members had been transferred by helicopter to an SDF base in Hakodate before the death was officially announced.
The LR-2 reconnaissance plane took off in poor weather from Okadama Airport in Sapporo City at about 11:25 a.m. on Monday and was heading for Hakodate Airport to pick up a patient, a doctor and other personnel there.
The plane lost communications with air traffic controllers about 20 minutes later and was last seen flying at an altitude of 900 meters, preparing to make an instrument landing due to low visibility, according to the defense ministry.
Read the full story at Xinhua