Second emergency landing in three days for US helicopters in Japan
Channel: Александр Юрьевич Чукланов
Date: 2018-02-20

Second emergency landing in three days for US helicopters in Japan
A US attack helicopter made an emergency landing near a hotel in Japan’s Okinawa on Monday. The incident came as a disabled rotorcraft was removed from a beach, where it had landed on Saturday.
The AH-1 helicopter landed on the premises of a hotel in the village of Yomitan after a warning light had come on, the Japanese broadcaster NHK reported. No injuries or damage were reported in the incident.
Also on Monday, a US heavy-lift transport evacuated a disabled US Marine Corps UH-1 helicopter, which had landed on a beach on the eastern coast of Ikeijima Island, near Okinawa, on Saturday afternoon.
No injuries or damage were reported in that incident either but the landing, just 100 meters from a residential area, fueled concerns of local residents over the US presence on the Japanese island.
Just before the New Year, Okinawans held a protest against the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, triggered by two incidents, in which helicopters flying from the base had dropped items on residential areas. Both endangered children on the ground, the protesters said.
Okinawa hosts roughly three fourths of the US troops deployed in Japan, with 30,000 service personnel living and working in bases that occupy about 20 percent of the island’s area. Local residents have long been protesting the bases, which they see as sources of pollution and crime.
One of the most memorable incidents involving a US Marine Corps UH-1 helicopter happened in 2004, when one crashed into a building at Okinawa International University. Fortunately, the school was largely vacant for summer break at the time.
A Japanese schoolboy has reportedly become the latest victim of the much-maligned US military presence in Okinawa. An American helicopter is said to have started falling apart directly above a schoolyard, resulting in injuries to the child.
On Wednesday morning, an angular object roughly 3ft (1 meter) across fell onto a sports field packed with elementary school children near the Futenma US military base in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. The object was discovered to be a helicopter window, complete with the frame, that had fallen off an American CH-53 aircraft flying above the school grounds.
One 10-year-old boy, out of some 50 children who were assembled in the sports field, was slightly injured in the incident, Reuters reports, citing a prefecture official. The exact cause of his injuries was unclear.
Three US helicopters were flying over the school at the time of the incident, according to Japanese media. They also report that there were around 30 children in the schoolyard and that the boy suffered an injury to his left hand. 
The US Marines have admitted a helicopter window fell on a children's sports ground, but have not clarified exactly how it happened. The US military also apologized“for any anxiety it has caused the community” and said an investigation into the “regrettable incident” is currently ongoing.
Last week, a US military aircraft dropped an object while flying over a nursery school in the same area. In October, the Japanese Defense Ministry vowed to ground all flights by CH-53E transport helicopters in Okinawa for an "indefinite period," after one of the aircraft crashed on the island. Such incidents, as well as frequent scandals involving US military staff, have led to large-scale protests from locals and officials who are unhappy at the American military presence on Okinawa. The southern island hosts half of the 100,000 US personnel deployed to Japan, including 54,000 military personnel, 42,000 dependents, and 8,000 civilian employees of the Department of Defense.