Military training plane crashes in Japan, 2 crew members missing

Tokyo: A search was launched on Wednesday for two crew members reported missing after a Japanese air force training plane crashed soon after take off.

The T-4 training plane belonging to the Japan Air Self-Defence Force had taken off from Komaki Air Base, in the central Japanese prefecture of Aichi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

The force said the plane was lost from radar two minutes after taking off. The authorities are searching for the missing aircraft and its crew in an area near a reservoir known as the Iruka pond, officials said. The reservoir is about 10 km northeast of the air base, near the city of Inuyama.

Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters that parts of the aircraft have been found at the crash site. He said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Witnesses told the NHK national broadcaster that they heard a loud noise like thunder, followed by sirens of police cars and fire engines.

The T-4 plane, which operates out of Nyutabaru air base, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki, was on an unspecified mission and its flight route could could not be released, defence officials said.

The crash is the latest in a series of defence aircraft accidents in recent years.