A Japanese military training plane crashed near a lake shortly after take-off with two people on board, authorities said on Wednesday.
Advertisement
“A T-4 training aircraft that belongs to the Air Self-Defence Force crashed at 3.08pm after radar lost (it) near a lake … after taking off at Komaki Air Base” in central Japan, Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters.
Nakatani said two people were on board, without revealing their identity.
“We don’t know what caused the aircraft to crash, but we will continue to do our utmost to save lives,” he said, adding that the military has been carrying out search operations.
An aircraft part was found near the scene, but it was unclear whether it was from the crashed plane, Nakatani said.
The T-4 seats two and is a “domestically produced, highly reliable and maintainable training aircraft … used for all basic flight courses”, according to the defence ministry website.