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1988 Sadamisaki Peninsula US military helicopter crash

25 Jun 1988 · Ehime Prefecture, Japan

United States Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion · Descended too low while flying under visual flight rules in dense fog

From Iwakuni Kintaikyo Airport (IWK) to Futenma Air Base

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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
7 · 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
0
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

Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion

Aircraft type
Sikorsky CH-53
Category
Helicopter · 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
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
7
Route
From Iwakuni Kintaikyo Airport (IWK)To Futenma Air Base

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 1988 Sadamisaki Peninsula US military helicopter crash (1988-nen Sadamisaki-hantō beigun heri tsuiraku jiko) was an aviation accident in which a United States Marine Corps CH-53 flying from Iwakuni Air Base to Futenma Air Base crashed on the Sadamisaki Peninsula, Ehime Prefecture, at around 10:20 am on Saturday 25 June 1988.

The crash site was about 800 m in a straight line from the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant, located on the same peninsula. Moreover, not only the local farmers who owned the land but even the press and members of the Diet were barred from entering the accident site, on the grounds that it was "in accordance with matters agreed by the Japan-US Joint Committee under the Status of Forces Agreement of the Japan-US Security Treaty".

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Japanese Wikipedia article “1988年佐田岬半島米軍ヘリ墜落事故” (revision 100672574, 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

Japanese Wikipedia article: 1988年佐田岬半島米軍ヘリ墜落事故
Article
1988年佐田岬半島米軍ヘリ墜落事故
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
100672574 · 2024-06-09 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q20044550
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
ja Wikipedia article "1988年佐田岬半島米軍ヘリ墜落事故" (page 3223330, revision 100672574), 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 Japanese Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.