Search Continues for 2 Crew Members of Crashed ASDF Plane

   Inuyama, Aichi Pref., May 15 (Jiji Press)--The search continued overnight through Thursday for the two missing crew members of an Air Self-Defense Force training plane that crashed in central Japan the previous day.
   According to the ASDF, the two are Capt. Takuji Ioka, 31, and 1st Lt. Shota Amitani, 29, of the 5th Air Wing, which is based in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki.
   The ASDF is working to confirm which of the two was piloting the T-4 aircraft that fell into Lake Iruka in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, while analyzing parts of the plane recovered from around the crash site to determine the cause.
   On Wednesday, the plane took off from the ASDF's Komaki base in the neighboring Aichi city of Komaki at 3:06 p.m., heading for its Nyutabaru base in Miyazaki. However, it disappeared from radar around 3:08 p.m., about 13 kilometers northeast of the Komaki base.
   The plane, manufactured in September 1989, showed no abnormalities in a preflight inspection. "I understand that there was no particular problem with the plane," Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, the ASDF's chief of staff, told a press conference after the crash.

(2025/05/15-16:43)