July 26 & 28, 2025
An emergency landing involving U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft stationed at the U.S. Yokota Air Base (Tokyo) has occurred twice within seven days in the Tohoku region (northeast Japan).
The first emergency landing took place on July 18 at Odate-Noshiro Airport in Akita Prefecture and the second one happened on July 24 at Hanamaki Airport in Iwate Prefecture.
In reaction to the emergency landing at Odate-Noshiro Airport, the Japanese Communist Party Akita Prefectural Committee on July 25 submitted to Governor Suzuki Kenta a written request.
The JCP in the written request demanded that the prefectural government push the national government to have the U.S. military explain the cause of the emergency landing to local residents as well as to prefectural and relevant local authorities. Furthermore, the JCP in its document requested the prefectural government to urge the state to ban the Osprey aircraft from flying over residential areas and revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement so that Japan’s domestic laws, including the aviation law, will also apply to the U.S. forces in Japan.
On the same day, the JCP Iwate Prefectural Committee and the JCP Prefectural Assemblymembers’ group also made representations to the prefectural government in regard to the tiltrotor aircraft’s dismal safety record.
In the representations, the JCP referred to the emergency landing in Akita a week earlier and the November 2023 fatal crash of U.S. CV-22 off Kagoshima and demanded that the prefectural government suspend flights of CV-22 aircraft until the cause of the two latest emergency landings is determined.
Past related article:
> US Osprey crashes into waters off Kagoshima, first fatal accident in Japan [November 30 & December 1, 2023]
The first emergency landing took place on July 18 at Odate-Noshiro Airport in Akita Prefecture and the second one happened on July 24 at Hanamaki Airport in Iwate Prefecture.
In reaction to the emergency landing at Odate-Noshiro Airport, the Japanese Communist Party Akita Prefectural Committee on July 25 submitted to Governor Suzuki Kenta a written request.
The JCP in the written request demanded that the prefectural government push the national government to have the U.S. military explain the cause of the emergency landing to local residents as well as to prefectural and relevant local authorities. Furthermore, the JCP in its document requested the prefectural government to urge the state to ban the Osprey aircraft from flying over residential areas and revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement so that Japan’s domestic laws, including the aviation law, will also apply to the U.S. forces in Japan.
On the same day, the JCP Iwate Prefectural Committee and the JCP Prefectural Assemblymembers’ group also made representations to the prefectural government in regard to the tiltrotor aircraft’s dismal safety record.
In the representations, the JCP referred to the emergency landing in Akita a week earlier and the November 2023 fatal crash of U.S. CV-22 off Kagoshima and demanded that the prefectural government suspend flights of CV-22 aircraft until the cause of the two latest emergency landings is determined.
Past related article:
> US Osprey crashes into waters off Kagoshima, first fatal accident in Japan [November 30 & December 1, 2023]
