Japan protests resumption of flights of US Osprey tiltrotor planes

By Alimat Aliyeva

The Legislative Assembly of Okinawa Prefecture protested the resumption of flights of the US Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, Azernews reports, citing the Kyodo agency.

The protest and the written opinion that the tiltrotor planes should be removed from the US Marine Corps Futemma base were adopted unanimously.

In March, the US military resumed tiltrotor flights, which had been stopped since November due to an accident in Japan, which killed 8 people.

Currently, 29 Osprey tiltrotor planes are deployed in Japan: at the USAF Yokota Base near Tokyo 5 and at the US Marine Corps Futemma Base on Okinawa 24, as well as 14 such tiltrotor planes belonging to the Ground Self-Defense Forces and stationed at the Kisarazu base in Chiba next to Tokyo.

Despite assurances from the Ministry of Defense that detailed explanations were received from the American side, there is no detailed information about the causes of the accident in the public domain. This is explained by the specifics of the issue related to secrecy.

The population in the places where Osprey flights take place is concerned about the safety problems of tiltrotor aircraft.