Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force resumed Thursday flights of its Ospreys near Tokyo, almost four months after suspending them due to a deadly crash of a U.S. military Osprey off a southwestern Japanese island.
The move came a week after U.S. forces resumed Osprey operations in Japan following their lifting of a worldwide flight ban on the tilt-rotor aircraft March 8 without offering a detailed explanation about the cause of the Nov. 29 accident that killed all eight airmen on board.
A V-22 transport plane took off around 11:30 a.m. from Camp Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo, a temporary deployment site for the GSDF's 14 Ospreys.
Amid lingering concern over the safety of the aircraft, senior GSDF officers on Monday informed the city government of Kisarazu of the resumption plan, with Defense Minister Minoru Kihara having pledged to give an advance briefing to local authorities.
The crash of a U.S. Air Force CV-22 into the sea near Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture during a drill was the deadliest involving Ospreys since their combat debut in 2007.
In November, shortly after the incident, the GSDF suspended Osprey flights, while the United States grounded all of its Ospreys across the world on Dec. 6.
On March 14, the U.S. military started flying them again at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture.
The Japanese Defense Ministry aims to relocate the GSDF Osprey fleet from Kisarazu to Saga in southwestern Japan by 2025.
Ospreys are capable of taking off and landing like a helicopter but cruising like a plane.
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