Japan Says Surveillance Drone Crashed Off Coast
Japan Says Surveillance Drone Crashed Off Coast
The News
Japan says one of its reconnaissance aircraft is presumed to have crashed off the country's western coast after the air force lost contact with it on Tuesday.
The aircraft was a long-distance surveillance drone flying off Japan's northwestern coast when contact was lost, according to reporting from The Independent, Yahoo News and Reuters.
The Japan Coast Guard spotted an apparent piece of the drone floating in the sea off Tottori Prefecture, NHK reported, according to The Japan Times.
Timeline
Japan's air force loses contact with one of its long-distance surveillance drones during a flight off the northwestern coast, The Independent and Yahoo News report.
An apparent piece of the drone is spotted floating in the sea off the coast of Tottori Prefecture by the Japan Coast Guard, NHK reported, per The Japan Times, which identified the missing aircraft as an Air Self-Defense Force Global Hawk.
Japan says the reconnaissance aircraft is presumed to have crashed off its western coast, Reuters reports.
Reactions
The Japanese government's own assessment is the story so far: officials moved within hours from saying contact had been lost to saying the aircraft is presumed crashed, Reuters reported.
None of the wire reports carry statements from other governments, and none identify a cause for the loss of the aircraft.
What's Next
The immediate question is recovery and cause. With debris apparently sighted off Tottori, attention turns to whether Japanese forces and the Coast Guard can locate the rest of the aircraft and what investigators conclude about why an unmanned surveillance aircraft went down.
The available reports do not say whether Japan has scheduled a formal accident investigation or briefing.
More
The flight path matters as much as the aircraft. The drone was operating off Japan's northwestern coast — the side of the country that faces the Sea of Japan, the Korean Peninsula and Russia's Far East — the stretch Japanese long-range surveillance flights are used to watch.
Poll
What should Japan treat as the likely cause of the crash?
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