US military to resume chopper flights in Okinawa after crash

The U.S. military said Wednesday that it will resume training flights by HH-60 rescue choppers deployed in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa after one of the helicopters crashed down in the prefecture on Aug. 5, according to local media. The U.S. force said they did not find any abnormalities on the HH-60s during a 96-hour checkup, reported Japan's Kyodo News, adding they have not yet determined the cause of the crash, which left one crew member dead. The Okinawa prefectural assembly had adopted a resolution that urges the U.S. military to suspend missions by the HH-60s until the cause of the accident is determined. The crash, which occurred inside the U.S. Marine Corps' Hansen camp in Ginoza village in Okinawa, came at a sensitive time when the second batch of 12 U.S. Osprey aircraft is being deployed to the prefecture. On Wednesday, Okinawa's Ginowan city, which holds the U.S. Futenma air station, passed a resolution, calling for remove all the U.S. Ospreys immediately. The Okinawa prefectural government and residents have demanded for long to move U.S. aircrafts out of the prefecture, as well as U.S. airbases, due to safety concern. However, Japan's central government and the United States, despite the opposition, continued to deploy more U.S. aircrafts to the prefecture, which holds more than 70 percent of U.S. bases in Japan.