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2016 Japan Air Self-Defense Force Raytheon U-125 accident

6 Apr 2016 · Mount Takakuma, 10 km north of Kanoya Air Base, Japan

Raytheon U-125 · The 2016 Japan Air Self-Defense Force Raytheon U-125 crash occurred on 6 April 2016

From Kanoya Air Base Japan to Kanoya Air Base Japan

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
6 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
0
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Military

Raytheon U-125

Aircraft type
Raytheon U-125
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
49-3043
Onboard fatalities
6
Route
From Kanoya Air Base JapanTo Kanoya Air Base Japan

Cause areas

  • Personnel issues › Task performance
  • Environmental issues › Physical environment

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

The 2016 Japan Air Self-Defense Force Raytheon U-125 crash occurred on 6 April 2016. On that day, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force Raytheon U-125 that had taken off from Kanoya Air Base was flown into terrain during a check flight, killing all six occupants of the aircraft.

Accident sequence

The aircraft, stationed at Iruma Air Base, had taken off on that day at 8:49 from Iruma for Kanoya, where it was to be used on a calibration flight. It arrived there at 12:06. The aircraft took off from Kanoya Air Base at 13:15. About 80 minutes later, when the aircraft was on approach to runway 08R in adverse weather conditions and about 10 kilometres north of the air base, radio contact was lost.

Investigation and cause

Cause

The cause of the accident was determined to be a controlled flight into terrain. About 12 seconds before impact, the Ground Proximity Warning System had warned of an imminent collision. The warning tone was switched off two seconds before impact without any actions being taken to avoid the collision.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Raytheon U-125 der Luftselbstverteidigungsstreitkräfte Japans 2016” (revision 256696258, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Raytheon U-125 der Luftselbstverteidigungsstreitkräfte Japans 2016
Article
Flugunfall einer Raytheon U-125 der Luftselbstverteidigungsstreitkräfte Japans 2016
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
256696258 · 2025-06-04 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q28683491
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Raytheon U-125 der Luftselbstverteidigungsstreitkräfte Japans 2016" (page 11948979, revision 256696258), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
none
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.