Dec 01 (malaymail.com) - Japan’s coastguard on Friday scoured the seabed for the wreckage of an Osprey US military aircraft that crashed this week, with still no sign of seven missing airmen.
The tilt-rotor CV-22B Osprey went down Wednesday off the island of Yakushima on a routine training mission with eight crew on board.
One man was found and later declared dead the same day, but the coastguard said Friday that the other seven remained unaccounted for despite a massive search.
“To date, there are no new leads to the missing individuals,” it said in a statement.
“Today, in addition to the search by patrol vessels and aircraft, we plan to continue dive searches including areas where the side-scan sonar survey yesterday showed echo images that are different from those on the seafloor.”
On Thursday, divers investigated other unidentified objects found by sonar in waters around 30 metres (100 feet) deep that turned out to be rocks.
Photos from the area after the incident showed what appeared to be an overturned yellow life raft and other debris including what was thought to possibly be part of a propeller.