4 with no vital signs located on mountain along with wreckage of Japan's ASDF jet in Kagoshima Prefect

Japan's Ministry of Defense (MOD) said on Thursday it had found some of the the wreckage of an Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) jet that disappeared from radar a day earlier in a mountainous region in Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan.

The Air Staff Office confirmed that four of the plane's six crew members have been located and were showing no vital signs of life, although local media quoted the office as saying the four have not officially been pronounced dead and will be transported off the mountain on Friday or thereafter.

Earlier reports quoted a senior ministry official as saying that all six occupants had been located near the wreckage and found to be in a "state of cardiac arrest," and were showing no vital signs of life.

The Air Staff Office subsequently retracted the statement, however, saying that one crew member was found with no vital signs, while the other five occupants remained missing, with searches continuing, and later updated the information reporting that three crew members had been located, with the others missing, but said the misinformation was released owing to differing accounts on the ground.

The latest reports state that the crew members were found along with some wreckage from the plane around half a kilometer away from one of the peaks of Mt. Takakuma, at an elevation of around 1,180 meters.

The site is located just over 10 kilometers north of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's air base in Kanoya city, in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Eye witnesses reported seeing smoke rising from the mountainous Takakuma region near the airbase on Wednesday afternoon, but search and rescue operations for the missing plane were initially hampered by heavy fog and inclement weather, following the plane going off the radar earlier that afternoon.

The twin-engined U-125 jet, which is 15-meters in length and typically used to check the condition of aircraft navigation facilities, belongs to the Flight Check Squadron at the Air Self Defense Force's Iruma airbase in Sayama in Saitama Prefecture, the MOD confirmed, adding that the ASDF lost contact with the small plane from its radars at around 2:35 p.m. local time on Wednesday, as it was flying just north of the Kanoya airbase.

The plane, captained by an ASDF major, reportedly in his 40s, departed the base shortly after 1 p.m. and was scheduled to return around 4 p.m. Other occupants in the plane included a copilot, 2 radio operations personnel and 2 maintenance officials.

SDF helicopters had been combing the area to find the missing plane, which was flying over an area near Mt. Takakuma, at an altitude of about 880 meters, when it disappeared from radar. The search was suspended at around 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday evening, due to heavy fog according to local police, with Japan's weather agency confirming there had been a thick layer of fog above the Kanoya base that afternoon.

In addition, ground forces had set up a base on the mountain, at the halfway point to its peak, as ongoing information was trying to be gathered on the plane's location.

Around 600 search and rescue personnel were deployed to the area, inducing SDF personnel, police and firefighters, to find the missing plane and its occupants.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani had initially told reporters in a press briefing earlier Thursday that there was hope that the occupants of the downed jet might be found alive.

Last year a Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) helicopter departing from the Kanoya base crashed on a mountain in Miyazaki Prefecture, next to Kagoshima, killing all three of its occupants.

Source: XINHUA