Part of SDF helicopter wreckage recovered from seabed

R I P

Maybe this will stop the many conspiracy theories, but looking at the comments in social media it may make them even worse.

WEIRD, Everybody wants to know what REALLY happened, but NOBODY expects transparency....

Thank you for your service and RIP!

Catastrophic damage, wreckage seemingly retrieved from one place points to intact collision with the surface at high speed.

Being able to burry and put to rest your loved one is a gift that brings peace to any family.

A tragedy.

The SDF needs to have a plan for Okinawa. China has announced that it will officially refer to Okinawa as Ryukyu Prefecture. It’s going to become a hot spot, hotter than Taiwan.

was it the china-gov? i thought common sense would dictate to never send a lone heli or ship into an area where your bully neighbor is trying to creep into your backyard. minimal, you have a stealth-drone overlooking all

was it the china-gov? i thought common sense would dictate to never send a lone heli or ship into an area where your bully neighbor is trying to creep into your backyard. minimal, you have a stealth-drone overlooking all

Look at a chart please. The helicopter was right off shore from a Japanese island and far from any Chinese naval activity or the Senkaku Islands.

Maybe, as many times before, the crew's recklessness and the execution of maneuvers that they are not up to. The result is a direct impact into the water at approximately 350 km/h.

Maybe, as many times before, the crew's recklessness and the execution of maneuvers that they are not up to.

Simmer down there bub. A pilot getting disconbobulated in the clag doesn't imply being reckless. Spatial disorientation from rain on the windscreen has bitten more than one helicopter pilot (we called it waterfall effect and it can be very powerful). I myself almost flew one into the water doing a night instrument approach to a ship in blue water. The radar altimeter dropped out of my scan as I focused on my direction. I had previously set the warning light to go off if the radalt went below 25 feet and that winking yellow light saved me from flying into the water, though it was a very close thing. That was on a calm clear night. Throw in some weather, maybe a sudden cloud burst and turbulence and you can see how things can get away from the pilot pretty fast.

Here is a great example of what happens when the weather suddenly goes to crap. The HH-60 is attempting a rescue hoist from a passenger ship when a squall kicks up and they find themselves in a sudden strong downdraft. Been there done that btw. Scary as heck. You can see the downdraft drives the helo down almost into the surface of the water. They were lucky. I have also been caught in an unexpected downdraft in a squall and even using maximum continuous power and best rate of climb airspeed and nose attitude we were falling out of the sky at a rate of 3000 feet per minute. The helo simply didn't have enough power to overcome the downdraft. Luckily for us we hit the updraft on the other side before we hit the ground, but it was a close call. I think you can see how this JGSDF UH-60 likewise could have hit a downdraft it could not recover from.

There are two short videos on this link and the second one shows just how close to the water this Coast Guard crew came. They'll be pulling upholstery fabric out of their nether regions for a while O_O

https://gcaptain.com/us-coast-guard-helicopter-has-close-call-during-harrowing-heavy-weather-medevac/