An urgent search is underway for two crew members reported missing after a Japanese air force training aircraft crashed following takeoff.
The T-4 training jet, belonging to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), lost contact just two minutes after departing from Komaki Air Base in Aichi prefecture, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Search efforts are focused on an area near the Iruka pond reservoir, approximately six miles northeast of the base and near the city of Inuyama, where debris from the aircraft has been discovered.
Defence Minister Gen Nakatani confirmed the discovery of aircraft parts at the crash site and stated that an investigation into the cause of the incident is underway.
Authorities are also working to contain a fuel leak from the wreckage, which is reportedly spreading across the reservoir's surface.
Witnesses told the NHK national broadcaster that they heard a loud noise like thunder, followed by sirens of police cars and fire engines.
The T-4 plane, which operates out of Nyutabaru air base, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki, was heading back to its home base on an unspecified mission, Nakatani said.
The crash is the latest in a series of defense aircraft accidents in recent years.
In April 2024, two SH-60K navy reconnaissance helicopters crashed during nighttime anti-submarine training near Torishima Island, about 600 kilometers south of Tokyo, leaving all eight crewmembers dead.
In 2023, an army UH-60JA Black Hawk helicopter on a reconnaissance mission crashed off the southern island of Miyako, with the loss of 10 crew.
