The Japan Air Self-Defence Force has temporarily grounded its Boeing/Mitsubishi F-15J fleet after one of the aircraft crashed off the coast of Okinawa on 5 July, triggering a safety investigation.
The F-15J was lost from radar about 40min after taking off from Naha airport, the service said in a news release.
Less than 2h later, a search and rescue team spotted pieces of an F-15J floating in the water about 185km (100nm) north of Naha, the JASDF said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Prior to the crash Japan operated a fleet of 154 F-15Js, as listed by Flightglobal's MiliCAS database. The vast majority of these were license-built in the country by Mitsubishi. Boeing assembled the first 10 examples before transferring final assembly to the company.
Japan also flies 45 F-15DJ trainers, according to MiliCAS.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
