The wreckage of a tourist helicopter that had gone missing near an active volcano in Japan has been located. Police searching the volcanic terrain of Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture discovered what seemed to be an aircraft near Nakadake’s primary crater on Tuesday afternoon. Subsequent confirmation revealed that the wreckage belonged to the missing helicopter.
The helicopter, carrying two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot, disappeared around 11 am local time while sightseeing in the area. After hours of searching, a police helicopter spotted the missing aircraft at approximately 4:10 pm. The alarm was raised when the helicopter operator, Takumi Air, received a distress signal from the aircraft. Shortly after, the fire department received notification that a smartphone associated with one of the passengers on the helicopter had detected an impact.
A security guard near the crater reported hearing a sound around the time the aircraft went missing. The helicopter was supposed to land at Mount Aso at 11:10 am after departing from the tourist facility Cuddly Dominion. When it failed to arrive, the tour agency initiated a rescue operation, deploying helicopters from the police, firefighting services, and the Japan Self-Defense Forces to aid in the search.
Despite the confirmation of signals from the aircraft, search efforts were impeded by heavy fog, even though there had been no recent significant volcanic activity in the area. The passengers onboard were identified as a 41-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman from Taiwan, along with a 64-year-old Japanese pilot. Mount Aso, Japan’s second-largest active volcano, was formed after massive eruptions between 300,000 and 90,000 years ago. Mount Nakadake, one of Aso’s peaks, features seven craters, including an active one known as crater one, measuring 600 meters in diameter and 130 meters in depth, with a circumference of about 4 kilometers.