U.S. fighter jet dumps fuel tanks into Aomori Prefecture lake after engine fire

A U.S. fighter jet on Tuesday caught fire and dumped a pair of fuel tanks into a lake in Aomori Prefecture, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said.

While no injuries were reported, the external fuel tanks measuring 4 to 5 meters in length landed some 400 meters from a fishing boat on Lake Ogawara, according to government officials and local fishermen.

Onodera said the ministry was informed that the F-16 fighter jet caught fire at around 8:40 a.m., shortly after taking off from Misawa Air Base. It safely returned to base.

“I believe it dumped (the tanks) for safety reasons. I would like to get explanation from the U.S. side about the incident, including the cause of it, and request measures to prevent such an accident from happening again,” Onodera told reporters.

In a statement, the U.S. military confirmed that one of its F-16s had been forced to “jettison two external fuel tanks into an unpopulated area” after an engine fire broke out.

“The safety of our airmen and our Japanese neighbors is our number one priority during flying operations,” said Col. R. Scott Jobe, the 35th Fighting Wing commander. “We will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the root cause of this incident.”

There were four to five clam boats near where the fuel tanks were dropped, according to the fishermen.

“I was surprised to see a big splash. Imagine being hit by one of those. It is a good thing no one was hurt,” said Masahiko Yamada, one of the fishermen on the lake at the time of the accident.

Yamada said that the tanks were jettisoned in an area where the water depth was about 10 meters. The local fisheries association reported the incident to the municipal government at around 8:50 a.m.

A city road near the lake was closed to traffic as a precaution in case the tanks contained a toxic substance, police said.

The Defense Ministry’s local bureau requested that the U.S. base’s headquarters ensure safety and take measures to prevent similar incidents from happening, according to the ministry.

The ministry said its officials saw oil and objects believed to be parts of the fuel tanks floating in the lake.

Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura said it is “regrettable” that the incident has hindered clam boat operations and urged the U.S. forces and the Japanese government to look into the cause of the incident and compensate fishermen.

The case follows a string of accidents involving U.S. military aircraft, for which U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis apologized to Onodera last month.

U.S. military helicopters made at least three emergency landings in Okinawa Prefecture in January alone.

In December, a window from a U.S. military helicopter fell onto a school playground in Okinawa, and in October another helicopter burst into flames after landing in an empty field in the prefecture.