Welcome to Issues in Japan.
It's been a week since an F-15 fighter jet piloted by a top Air Self-Defense Force pilot disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Komatsu Air Base in Ishikawa Prefecture.
According to The Sankei News:
The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) suspects that the plane crashed because several pieces of the plane were found in the vicinity, but the two people on board are still missing, and the SDF has been searching for them throughout the night.
What happened just a minute or two after takeoff?
"It is heartbreaking that both of them are still missing. We will work to find and rescue them as quickly as possible," said Chief of Staff, Air Self Defense Force at an extraordinary press conference on January 1, the day after the accident, with a pained expression on his face.
The accident occurred at around 5:30 p.m. on January 31.Four aircraft took off in sequence from Komatsu Air Base after sunset for training to intercept enemy aircraft at night.
One or two minutes after takeoff, the fourth aircraft made a large right turn from the southwest toward the north, where the training airspace was located.
At this moment, the air traffic controller spotted an orange glow in the sky to the west-northwest and called out over the radio, but there was no response, and the shadow of the aircraft disappeared from radar.
At the time of the accident, it was sleeting, the temperature was 1.9 degrees Celsius, and the average wind speed was 1.2 meters per hour for 10 minutes.
The weather conditions were not considered to be a hindrance to flight, but it seemed to be cloudy.
One of the most common situations that pilots get into due to poor visibility is "spatial disorientation," where they lose their sense of vertical equilibrium.
The Ministry of Defense cited spatial disorientation as the probable cause of the crash of an F35A fighter jet belonging to Misawa Air Base (Misawa City, Aomori Prefecture) in April 2019.
However, on board the plane were the Colonel (52), commander of the flight instructor group, and the Captain (33), a member of the same group.
The flight instructor group is the only unit responsible for instructing fighters and is nicknamed the "aggressor" because it plays the role of the enemy in training.
The Colonel who was holding the controls in the front seat, is the elite commander of the group and has a total of 2,800 hours of flight time, having served as the Blue Impulse commander in the past.
The Captain had also accumulated 1900 hours of experience.
In a two-seater fighter, it is common for the veteran pilot to be in the back seat, but this time, the Colonel was in the front seat.
Active duty pilots are required to fly at least once a month, 50 hours a year, and it is possible that this was to maintain his skills.
A pilot who knew the Colonel well said, "Human error is unlikely. But I don't know if it was a long time since he flew."
He also said, "He was a man with a strong sense of responsibility, so he may have tried to recover until the last minute."
Even if there are human factors involved, the back seat pilot can still take control.
The fact that light was emitted at the time of the accident suggests the possibility of external factors.
This could be a "bird strike," in which a bird is caught in the engine, but we have to suspect that it occurred simultaneously in the left and right engines.
A pre-flight inspection immediately before the accident revealed no abnormalities, but the aircraft was introduced in 1983, so it is possible that some aging had occurred.
The Air Self-Defense Force has set up an accident investigation committee to analyze the cause of the accident as well as the search.
The official said, "We can't irresponsibly state the possibility. We are now assuming all possibilities. "
That’s all for now.
