The Japanese government has decided to send in a group of specialists to check the safety and maintenance of US helicopters stationed in Okinawa — an event that the United States Forces Japan refer to as an "information exchange."
The decision comes after a series of emergency landings and other safety incidents involving US helicopters stationed at the US Marine Corps base in Okinawa. Recently, two helicopters, an AH-1Z Viper and a YH-1Y Venom, experienced malfunctions that forced them to perform emergency landings.
"The US suspended, checked and maintained AH-1Zs, then resumed operations, so we will receive reports from the US to see whether it was appropriate or not," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Tuesday.
"The Self-Defense Forces operate the same type of helicopters, so we would like to send specialists who have knowledge on maintenance and such," he added.
The series of incidents happened in a short time span, with a Venom making an emergency landing January 6 and Viper emergency landings January 8 and again on January 23, according to reports by Stars and Stripes.
"The Ministry of Defense will promptly confirm and verify the state of inspections and maintenance conducted by the US side utilizing the Self-Defense Forces' professional and technical knowledge," Onodera said.
"In any case, the safety of US military flights is the major premise [for their deployment] and we will continue to strongly urge the US side to take fundamental measures to prevent it from happening again," he added.
Four days before that, an unknown object, appearing to be a transparent plastic cylinder with labels in English, landed on the rooftop of a daycare facility in Ginowan, a town located next to Okinawa air base, sparking mass protests against US military aircraft.
And helicopters aren't the only US aircraft operating in Japan with problems lately. Earlier in December, personnel at Yokota Air Base discovered that a US C-130J Hercules military cargo plane was missing part of its aerial flare. The official statement following the incident mentioned that the missing part contained "hazardous" materials that might inflict serious injury if handled. However, the statement noted that the piece poses no environmental danger "if it isn't disturbed," Sputnik reported at the time.
US Forces Japan (USFJ) responded to the Japanese government's initiative with a statement expressing their confidence in Japanese side's satisfaction.
"USFJ is confident in the safety and reliability of all US aircraft operating in Japan and the efforts of our aircrews and maintenance personnel to conduct safe flying operations," the statement said. "We believe that the information exchange on Thursday will provide our alliance partners with the necessary technical information, confirm the thoroughness of the US military's maintenance procedures and reassure the Japanese people of our robust commitment to flight safety."
