US Osprey military aircraft with 8 crew crashes off Japan

US Osprey military aircraft with eight crew on board crashed on Wednesday off the coast of Japan, the coastguard said.

"We received information at 2:47 pm (0547 GMT) today that the US military's Osprey crashed off Yakushima Island," a spokeswoman told AFP.

"We were also notified that there were eight crew members on board," she added. "There is no further information at the moment."

The island of Yakushima lies south of Japan's southernmost main island Kyushu.

The crash comes after another Osprey crashed in northern Australia in August, killing three US marines among 23 on board.

The Boeing MV-22B Osprey crashed on Melville Island, north of Darwin during a military exercise for locally based troops, reports BSS.