Japan Coast Guard, partners respond to deadly helicopter crash off Nagasaki prefecture

The Japan Coast Guard and other partner agencies deployed assets in response to a helicopter crash that killed three people in the waters off Nagasaki prefecture in southwestern Japan on Sunday, April 6.

The helicopter was transporting a 86-year-old female patient from an airport in Nagasaki to a hospital in Fukuoka when it fell into the sea in the early afternoon (local time) of Sunday.

A coast guard patrol vessel arrived at the scene at around 17:05 and found the upturned helicopter and three survivors floating on the surface. The survivors, who were found clinging to inflatable life preservers, all contracted hypothermia but were otherwise conscious.

Tragically, the deceased bodies of the female patient, a 68-year-old male companion, and a 34-year-old male doctor were pulled out of the water by the crew of a Japan Air Self-Defence Force helicopter that had also deployed to the area to render assistance.

Medical officials said the ill-fated helicopter belonged to a local aviation company that also owned another helicopter that had crashed in Fukuoka prefecture in July last year, killing two people.