A U.S. military helicopter made an emergency Friday evening in Prefecture, but nobody was injured, local government and police officials said.
The AH-1Z Viper had mechanical trouble and received a cockpit warning indication, according to a central government source.
The chopper with two crew members on a farm path on Ikei Island, said police, who received a call from a local man at around 7:40 p.m. saying a helicopter had made an emergency .
“We are working closely with Okinawan authorities to secure the site in order to protect both the aircraft and the local community,” says a Marine Corps news release. “We request that the public respect the barriers in place for their own safety, and to better enable us to remove the aircraft as quickly as possible.”
The Viper is attached to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267.
About a month ago a U.S. Marines Osprey aircraft crash- off the city of Nago during a nighttime refueling drill, heightening safety concerns in the prefecture which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
==Kyodo
USMC Life contributed to this report
