Two crew members stay unaccounted for as search and rescue group recuperate An factor of the fighter jet’s fuselage.

A lacking Japanese F-15 fighter jet is think aboutd to have crashed and its two crew members stay unaccounted for, Based mostly on the defence ministry.

The Japan Air Self-Protection Strain jet disappeared from air visitors administration radars on Monday shortly after takeoff, about 5km (3 miles) from Komatsu Airbase on The ocean of Japan coast, which has two tactical fighter squadrons, the ministry said on Tuesday.

Public service broadcaster NHK quoted Japanese officers as saying that the F-15 fighter jet Did not ship an emergency signal earlier than it went lacking, and that That they had acquired no calls reporting irregularities or rescue alerts.

In accordance to the report, officers think about flight circumstances “deteriorated quickly” giving The two-particular person crew no time To answer.

Chatting with reporters, defence minister Nobuo Kishi dismissed an early media report that Definitely one of many pilots had been found.

Search and rescue helicopters and three coastguard ships continued their search after earlier discovering plane particles Inside the sea, the Japan Coast Guard said in a press launch.

“As An factor of the fuselage of the fighter jet was found Inside The world, the fighter jet is think aboutd to have crashed,” prime authorities spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno informed reporters on Tuesday.

The spokesman said “all efforts” have been being made to discover the lacking crew members.

A lot of the F-15 jets flown by Japan have been constructed beneath licence by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and have been Japan’s mainstay entrance-line fighter for 4 many years, frequently scrambling To answer Chinese language and Russian plane probing the nation’s airspace.

Japan has some 200 F-15s, half of which Shall be upgraded by Boeing To enhance their working life and enhance performance.

Most of Japan’s F-15s are single-seat plane, with The two-seater variant used for teaching.

In 2019, a Japanese Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter on a teaching mission crashed into the Pacific Ocean after its pilot Is assumed to have expert spatial disorientation.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/1/japan-says-missing-f-15-fighter-likely-crashed-crew-missing