A U.S. Navy plane carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the ocean southeast of Okinawa on Wednesday afternoon while en route to the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, leaving three missing, according to the U.S. Navy and the Japanese Defense Ministry.

The Ronald Reagan, which is part of the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, was conducting a drill with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force when the C-2 transport aircraft crashed at around 2:45 p.m.

Eight people have been rescued and they are in a "good condition," the 7th Fleet said in a statement posted on its website.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the U.S. military informed Japanese authorities that engine trouble may have caused the crash.

No members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces were aboard the plane that crashed about 150 kilometers northwest of the Okinotori island group, he said.

Search and rescue efforts for the three missing people are continuing with the U.S. Navy and MSDF ships and aircraft involved.

According to the 7th Fleet, the C-2 was conducting "a routine transport flight" carrying passengers and cargo from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in western Japan to the Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea when it went down.

The plane is assigned to a logistics support squadron deployed to the U.S. Naval Air Facility in Atsugi, near Tokyo.

The crash is the latest in a series of incidents around Japan involving U.S. military aircraft and ships.

In June, the U.S. Navy's guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald, which is also part of the 7th Fleet, collided with a container ship off Japan, killing seven U.S. sailors. October saw a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E helicopter burst into flames as it made an emergency landing near the U.S. Northern Training Area in Okinawa.