The U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa announced Wednesday that a CH53E helicopter belonging to the First Marine Corps Air Wing at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station dropped a hanging iron container off Tonoki Island in Okinawa Prefecture around 0:30 p.m.
It seems to have been in training. According to the Okinawa Defense Bureau, the container is about 2 meters long and 2.5 meters wide and 5 meters high.
The weight is unknown. It is said that no one was injured.
According to a Defense Ministry official, the container was not believed to have been recovered as of the evening of the same day.
Yu Momohara, chief of Tonaki Village, said, “Falling objects falling from the sky can’t be a normal living environment. Villagers and fishermen should be worried.”
Kiichiro Sakihana, deputy governor of the prefecture, criticized the accident, saying, “Even though there was no damage to the people of the prefecture, there should not be an accident itself.” The prefecture and the village plan is to protest against the U.S. military over the accident.
