TOKYO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) helicopter made a crash landing on the outskirts of Tokyo on Friday, GSDF officials said.
According to the officials, the two crew members aboard the helicopter, a pilot and a co-pilot, managed to escape from the wreckage unharmed and there were no injuries to personnel on the ground at Camp Tachikawa, the site of the crash in the suburbs of Tokyo.
The crash, which left the chopper's tail section completely detached from the main fuselage and damaged the rotors, occurred as the UH-1J multipurpose helicopter was conducting an emergency landing training drill at around 9:55 a.m. local time, the GSDF said.
"We apologize for making residents in the neighborhood anxious," Japan's Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a press briefing on the matter.
Japan's GSDF UH-1J multipurpose helicopters belong to the first production members of the Huey family of choppers, with the first iteration, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois military helicopter, rolled out in 1959.
In Japan, the versatile choppers are primarily used for carrying troops and materials, and can be deployed to carry out search and rescue missions.
