http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=10&u=/ap/20040811/ap_on_re_as/missing_pilots_japanU.S. Military Searches for Missing Pilots
Wed Aug 11,12:47 AM ET
TOKYO - U.S. military planes searched on Wednesday for four missing Navy aviators whose surveillance plane crashed on an uninhabited island near Iwo Jima, military officials said.
The S-3 Viking plane from the USS Stennis crashed into the island of Kita Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday evening during a training exercise, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a statement.
Aircraft from the Stennis and the USS Kitty Hawk were searching the island for the four, whose identities were not being released pending a waiting period following notification of family.
The aviators were part of the "Blue Wolves" squadron based at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif. The mission was part of routine joint training between the Stennis and the Kitty Hawk in the western Pacific.
An investigation into the crash was underway, the military said.
About 50,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Japan under a security treaty.
Iwo Jima, a famous World War II battleground, is about 700 miles southeast of Tokyo, and Kita Iwo Jima is about 45 miles north of Iwo Jima.
The $27 million S3-B is an all-weather aircraft equipped for surveillance, electronic warfare and search-and-rescue. It can be armed with Harpoon and Maverick air-to-sea and air-to-ground missiles.
