Emergency Landing or Crash

A helicopter affiliated with Atsugi Base of the United States Force fell down on a clamed land in Miura city, Kanagawa, in the afternoon of Monday, injuring two of the four men aboard. Although there was no damage on residents, Japanese media, as usual, criticized delay of information from U.S. military. While all media dealt the incident as emergency landing, it is still not clear that the incident was actually so or a crash.

The helicopter was MH-60S Seahawk, which was a carrier-borne aircraft of U.S.S. George Washington. According to fire department of Miura city, one crew explained that they had been unable to control the aircraft due to malfunction of devices. Newspapers and TV reported the body of helicopter laid on the soil, which propeller was removed and broken. The scene obviously described that the accident was not an emergency landing, but simply a crash. Nevertheless, Japan media reported it as emergency landing, along with the announcement from the authority, making contrast with Stars and Stripes describing it as a crash.

While the place was three hundred feet away from residential area, there was no victim among the civilians. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent U.S. Embassy in Japan a regret on the accident. U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, visited the city office of Miura next day and apologized about the accident and promised further investigation for prevention of another accidents. Concerning negative sentiment against exclusive investigation of U.S. military on their accidents in Japan, U.S. force and Japanese police exercised joint operation in controlling the area around broken helicopter.

However, delay of disclosure was raised as usual in this accident. The first report to Kanagawa prefecture was not from U.S. force, but from a witness of the crash. U.S. Force reported the accident ten minutes later and the information about the type of the aircraft was provided three and half hours later. The guideline for improving exercise of Japan-U.S. Status of Force Agreement requires immediate report on an accident as soon as it is found.

Frustrated with delay of information disclosure, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, mentioned possible request for reviewing the Agreement on Tuesday. However, it is unlikely for U.S. government to accept it, because the Agreement is nothing strange from the agreements with other nations, including Germany or South Korea. The accident showed the inability of Japanese government in securing ordinary life of the people, while it had been emphasizing the necessity of oppressive legislation in order to protect people’s lives.