TOKYO — A search team investigating the deadly crash of a U.S. military aircraft in the sea off Japan last week has found wreckage and the remains of five missing crew members, the Air Force said Monday morning.
The Osprey CV-22B "tiltrotor" aircraft was carrying eight crew members when it crashed Wednesday near the island of Yakushima.
Air Force Special Operations Command said in a statement just after 4 a.m. ET Monday that a U.S.-Japanese team of divers had found “remains” and wreckage. In an update at 6 a.m. ET, the Air Force confirmed that it had found the fuselage of the craft and five bodies. Divers had retrieved two of the bodies and were working to retrieve the rest of the crew, it said.
None of those whose remains were found Monday have been identified so far.
"The coalition of military, coast guard, law enforcement, mariners, and local volunteers remain steadfast in locating and bringing the US Service Members back to their units and their families," the statement said.
The Japanese coast guard said last week that one person was recovered unconscious from the water and was later confirmed dead. Monday's updates mean two crew members remain unaccounted-for.
“The main priority is bringing the Airmen home and taking care of their family members. Support to, and the privacy of, the families and loved ones impacted by this incident remains AFSOC’s top priority,” the statement said.
Police in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, named the airman recovered last week as Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” Galliher, 24, a father of two.
The CV-22B Osprey — a hybrid helicopter-plane that takes off vertically but tilts its rotors 90 degrees forward once it is airborne — was taking part in a training exercise when it crashed off Yakushima, an island off the Kagoshima region on the southern main island of Kyushu.
It is latest in a string of deadly incidents involving U.S. military Osprey aircraft, and it was not the first accident in Japan.
Japan expressed concern over the continued use of the craft Friday and grounded its own fleet of Ospreys. Later that day the U.S. Defense Department said that it would stop flying them from Yokota Air Base but that U.S. Ospreys are flying in the rest of the region.
