Photo/Illutration A T-4 training plane at the Air Self-Defense Force’s Misawa Air Base (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

An Air Self-Defense Force training jet carrying two crew members crashed around a pond in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, on May 14, Aichi prefectural police said.

Rescue and emergency services have been dispatched to the scene and were searching the area, but they were unable to immediately find the two crew members.

Police said they were not aware of any civilian casualties.

The Defense Ministry said the T-4 aircraft took off from ASDF Komaki Air Base in the prefecture and was heading to ASDF Nyutabaru Air Base in Miyazaki Prefecture when it disappeared from radar at around 3 p.m. near Iruka-ike pond, about 6 kilometers southeast of Meitetsu Inuyama Station.

Police said they received multiple reports that a fighter jet had crashed into the pond near the popular Museum Meiji-mura and Inuyama Municipal Ikeno Elementary School.

Iruka-ike pond is one of the largest agricultural reservoirs in Japan.

A representative of Museum Meiji-mura said an explosion was heard at around 3:10 p.m. and visitors reported that “something like an airplane fell.”

A staff member of a boat rental store at the pond said, “I heard from returning customers that there was a tremendous noise.”

The elementary school was in class at the time.

“Some of the children seemed to have heard a ‘boom’ sound,” the school’s vice principal said.

After teachers and staff checked on the safety of the children, they escorted them out of the school, the vice principal said.

A woman, 59, who was working at an office near the site, said, “I heard a loud noise as if thunder had struck.”

She added: “I wondered what it was, but then police cars, fire engines and ambulances came one after another with sirens blaring, and the situation became very tense. I was surprised because it is usually a quiet place.”

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