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Japan's coast guard said it found what appeared to be wreckage
from the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey and one person who was later
confirmed to have died some 3 km (2 miles) from Yakushima
island.
Fishing boats in the area found three people in the surrounding
waters, a representative of a local fisheries cooperative said,
adding their condition was unknown.
Another Osprey landed safely at the island's airport on
Wednesday afternoon around the time of the crash, a spokesperson
for the local government said.
U.S. forces in the region were still gathering information, a
spokesperson said.
The United States has about 54,000 U.S. troops in Japan, many in
the strategically important southern island chain, amid growing
Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea.
The crash happened just before 3 p.m. (0600 GMT) with witnesses
saying the aircraft's left engine appeared to be on fire as it
approached an airport for an emergency landing, despite clear
weather and light wind, media reported.
The coast guard corrected the number of people on board the
plane to six from an initially announced eight.
Yakushima is in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture, some 1,040 km (650
miles) southwest of the capital Tokyo and known for its World
Heritage-accredited wildlife and forests.
Japan, which also operates Osprey aircraft, said on Wednesday it
had no plans to ground the aircraft but had asked the U.S.
military to investigate the crash.
Developed jointly by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, the Osprey can
fly both like a helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft and is
operated by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy and the Japan
Self-Defense Forces.
The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial,
with critics saying it is prone to accidents. The U.S. military
and Japan say it is safe.
In August, a U.S. Osprey crashed off the coast of northern
Australia while transporting troops during a routine military
exercise, killing three U.S. Marines.
Another crash-landed in the ocean off Japan's southern island of
Okinawa in December 2016, prompting a temporary U.S. military
grounding of the aircraft.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Tim Kelly and Kantaro Komiya;
Writing by John Geddie; Editing by David Dolan, Gerry Doyle and
Nick Macfie)
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