THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 14, 2023 at 19:00 JST
Divers entered waters in Okinawa Prefecture on April 14 to search for and recover the bodies presumably of Ground Self-Defense Force personnel who were aboard a helicopter that crashed on April 6.
They began diving around 3:30 p.m., but the operation was immediately suspended due to equipment failure. Officials expect to resume the operation on the morning of April 15.
The saturation divers were dispatched to the area near Irabujima island on submarine rescue vessel Chihaya after multiple bodies and what is believed to be the missing GSDF helicopter were found on April 13 and 14.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Maritime SDF minesweeper Etajima used sonar to detect an object about 100 meters deep on the seabed 6 kilometers north of Irabujima, which is located west of Miyakojima city, around 10 p.m. on April 13.
The minesweeper’s underwater camera captured an image of helicopter wreckage and a body nearby.
On the morning of April 14, two or three more bodies were spotted near the sunken aircraft.
The location is about 100 meters north of the point where the GSDF helicopter, carrying 10 crew members, disappeared from radar screens on April 6.
Ministry sources said it was difficult to identify the bodies from the camera images, or even if they were wearing helmets or SDF camouflage gear.
According to Hidetoshi Saito, chairman of the Society of Water Rescue and Survival Research and professor of environmental engineering at the Nagaoka University of Technology, the divers will use special equipment that can adjust water pressure and move up and down like an elevator.
The divers are expected to open a hatch on the bottom of the special equipment after they arrive near the wreckage, and then recover the bodies.
It takes about half an hour to conduct one dive with the equipment, Saito said.
(This article was compiled from reports by Kaigo Narisawa and Natsuki Edogawa.)
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The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s submarine rescue vessel Chihaya searches an area off Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 14. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)
