US military helicopter parts fall on Japanese kindergarten

Parts fell from a US helicopter onto a Japanese kindergarten. Photo: NHK.

About 100 people on the Japanese island of Okinawa held a protest on December 8 under the slogan "No US helicopters allowed to fly" to protest the incident where a US Marine helicopter dropped parts on the roof of a kindergarten in Ginowan city, NHK reported.

The device is a transparent plastic case with many aviation terms printed in English, suggesting it likely fell from a US helicopter stationed on Okinawa Island. A spokesman for the Ginowan City Police Department said the device weighed only 225 grams, but when dropped from a great height, it was still enough to threaten the lives of residents below.

"We consider this a serious incident and are working with local authorities to investigate. We are very concerned about the safety of the communities around where we live and operate," a spokesman for the US Marine Corps on Okinawa island said.

US aircraft have lost parts several times while operating in Japanese airspace. In early December, soldiers at Yokota Air Base discovered that a US C-130J transport plane had lost a part of its decoy system. Japanese media reported that the Tokyo metropolitan government and six other cities had complained about the incident.

According to VNE