Photo/Illutration A Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel searches for missing GSDF crew members near Miyakojima island in Okinawa Prefecture on April 7. (Tatsuya Shimada)

Parts of a crashed Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter were found off the coast of Miyakojima island in Okinawa Prefecture, but the 10 people aboard the aircraft remain missing, officials said April 7.

Patrol vessels of the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha have discovered several floating objects, including a slide door bearing the words for “GSDF” and an unused folded emergency lifeboat with a serial number that matched the one carried by the missing UH-60JA multipurpose helicopter.

Other parts were apparently rotor blades and pieces from the front body of the aircraft, the officials said.

Some of the objects were shown to the media later in the day.

The helicopter disappeared in the late afternoon of April 6.

The Defense Ministry initially said the chopper went missing near the east coast of Ikemajima island.

But after analyzing radar information and the places where the floating objects were found, the ministry on April 7 said the helicopter likely crashed in waters southwest of Ikemajima island.

The ministry said the revision has not affected the ongoing search and rescue efforts.

“We will continue to do our utmost to search for the (crew),” Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said at a news conference on April 7.

A Coast Guard official said visual searches were limited on April 7 because of bad weather in the surrounding waters.

“We are searching by using every means possible, including radar, searchlights and infrared cameras,” the official said.

The GSDF has grounded all 40 of its UH-60JA helicopters.

The missing helicopter had just undergone a regular inspection from March 20 to 28 and completed a safety test flight, the ministry said.

Such inspections are conducted after every 50 flight hours.

“We determined that it was an aviation accident after comprehensively judging the situation,” Gen. Yasunori Morishita, the GSDF chief of staff, said at a news conference on the night of April 6.

The helicopter that day was being used by a team conducting aerial reconnaissance to check possible dispatch areas during emergencies.

Lt. Gen. Yuichi Sakamoto, head of the GSDF’s Eighth Division, and two other senior officers, including the division’s chief of staff, who is ranked No. 3, were aboard the helicopter, according to the Defense Ministry.

Sakamoto had been promoted to the post on March 30. The other two officers were also newly appointed.

The Eighth Division, which was in charge of the missing UH-60JA helicopter, is stationed at the GSDF Vice Camp Takayubaru in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Three personnel familiar with the topography of Miyakojima island were on board to explain the area to the senior officers, the ministry said.

The other crew members were two pilots and two maintenance personnel.

The helicopter took off from the Air SDF’s Miyakojima Sub Base at 3:46 p.m. on April 6, according to the ministry.

It was scheduled to return to the base at 5:05 p.m. after flying around Miyakojima island. But the helicopter vanished from radar while flying over waters north-northwest of Miyakojima island at 3:56 p.m.

All contact with the helicopter was lost, and the ministry said it did not receive a distress signal that would automatically be transmitted if a crew member had ejected from the aircraft.

The weather at the time of the accident was clear, with a south wind of about 25 kph. The waves in the area were about 1 meter high, according to the Japan Coast Guard.

The clouds were at a level that would not have affected the flight, the ministry said.

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