A U.S. Navy aircraft carrying 11 crew members and passengers crashed Wednesday southeast of Okinawa, Japan, the fifth accident this year for the 7th Fleet, the Navy's largest overseas fleet.
Eight of those aboard were rescued, and American and Japanese naval forces were searching for the other three, the 7th Fleet said in a statement.
The aircraft, a C2-A Greyhound propeller cargo plane, was on its way to the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier engaged in joint exercises with Japan's navy in the Philippine Sea, when it crashed, according to the statement. The plane had been making a routine transport flight from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, the statement said.
The eight personnel rescued were undergoing medical evaluation on the Ronald Reagan and were in good condition, the statement said. It said the crash would be investigated.
The names of the crew members and passengers were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
In Washington, the White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the crash. He said in a tweet: "We are monitoring the situation. Prayers for all involved."
The Nov. 16-26 joint exercise in waters off Okinawa had been described by the Navy as the "premier training event" between the U.S. and Japanese navies, designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea operations.
Speaking to reporters, Itsunori Onodera, Japan's defense minister, said a U.S. source had indicated that the aircraft might have had engine trouble.
The accident occurred three months after a U.S. naval destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore, leaving 10 dead. That episode came just two months after a fatal collision between another naval destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, and a Philippine merchant vessel off the coast of Japan. Seven people on the Fitzgerald were killed.
The Navy relieved Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the head of the 7th Fleet, of his command in August. In reports released this month, the Navy's top admiral said the two destroyer crashes were "avoidable" and had resulted from a string of crew and basic navigational errors.
The weight of repeated tragedy was reflected in comments on the 7th Fleet's Facebook page Wednesday.
"This year needs to be over already," wrote Cadesha Lori Pacquette. "7th fleet can't handle any more curse."
Based in Yokosuka, Japan, the 7th Fleet is the Navy's biggest and busiest overseas fleet, with 20,000 sailors and 50 to 70 vessels.
Hiroyuki Yamamura, a former commander in Japan's navy, said accidents tended to come in succession.
"But even so, we have heard of so many accidents this year," he said. "This year is a bad year."
Toshiyuki Ito, a professor of crisis management and international relations at Kanazawa Institute of Technology and a retired vice admiral with the Maritime Self-Defense Force, said he suspected that the crew of the aircraft might have been exhausted.
"The situation in Asia is becoming tense as well, and they must work more and longer," he said, adding, "The accidents are caused by human errors. You know, maintenance is also done by people. Even one mistake in the chain of human work towards safety can lead to an accident."
Information for this article was contributed by Ken Moritsugu and Yuri Kageyama of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/23/2017