Details about what happened on the aircraft have not yet been confirmed (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
A US military aircraft carrying eight people has crashed into the sea off southern Japan.
The Japanese coast guard received an emergency call from a fishing boat at 2.47pm local time today near the crash site off Yakushima, an island south of Kagoshima, on the southern main island of Kyushu.
The aircraft disappeared from radar at 2:40pm local time, Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
The Osprey aircraft, which can function as a helicopter and a turboprop aircraft, is believed to have been heading from Iwakuni to Okinawa.
Details about what happened on the aircraft have not yet been confirmed but Japanese broadcaster NHK said the Osprey was trying to land at Yakushima airport and added the plane was on fire.
A rescue mission has now been deployed and the coast guard is heading to the site for search and rescue operations, coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said.
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Patrol boats and aircraft have been deployed to the site and the status of those onboard is not known.
A spokesperson for US forces in the region said they were still gathering information about the incident.
An Osprey crashed off the coast of northern Australia in August while transporting troops during a routine military exercise, killing three US Marines.
And another crash-landed in the ocean off Japan’s southern island of Okinawa in December 2016, prompting a temporary US military grounding of the aircraft.
The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial, with critics saying the hybrid aircraft is prone to accidents.
But the US military and Japan say it is safe.
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