By MORIKAZU KOGEN/ Staff Writer
November 21, 2022 at 17:22 JST
Police officers examine an ultralight plane that crashed into a field in Bando, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Nov. 20, killing two people. (Tsubasa Setoguchi)
BANDO, Ibaraki Prefecture--Two men were killed when the ultralight plane they were flying in crashed into a field in the Nagaya district here at around 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 20.
Masashi Ichikawa, 57, a restaurant owner who was piloting the plane, and Masaaki Tajima, 63, a police officer with the Chiba prefectural police, both residents of Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, were killed, according to the Ibaraki prefectural police’s Sakai Police Station.
Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed approximately 100 meters from the end of the runway.
A witness said that the pilot of the plane was repeating takeoffs and landings before the accident.
Police are investigating the cause of the accident.
The Japan Transport Safety Board plans to dispatch aircraft accident investigators to the site to determine the cause.
The crash site is located in a portion of farmland near the left bank of the Tonegawa river. The nearest residence is located about 300 meters away.
A 74-year-old local farmer said that the sound of the plane's engine suddenly stopped at around 11:30 a.m. Shortly after that, he heard a loud boom.
When he drove toward the direction of the sound, he found the front portion of the plane buried in the ground nose first. The person who had rushed to the scene before him was making an emergency call.
The farmer asked the two men aboard the plane, “What’s happened? Are you OK?” But they did not respond.
Of the accident, he said, “I think it might be related to engine trouble.”
An ultralight plane is an airplane with a simple structure equipped with landing gear and an engine that can be flown with the pilot in a seated position, according to the transport ministry's website.
It must meet conditions such as “a deadweight of 180 kilograms or less for a single-seat plane and 225 kg or less for a double-seat plane.”
A pilot license that is required to fly a conventional aircraft is not required. But people must obtain prior permission under the Civil Aeronautics Law for an ultralight plane, its pilot and the location of takeoffs and landings, according to the ministry.
The Japan Transport Safety Board reported that there were 15 crashes of ultralight planes in the 10 years since November 2012, resulting in six fatalities.
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