Japan's science ministry says a deep-sea search will begin next month for the two Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopters that crashed into the Pacific in April.
The ministry announced on Friday that the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, will begin the search at the request of the Defense Ministry. JAMSTEC will use an unmanned deep-sea vehicle that can reach a depth of up to 6,000 meters.
Two MSDF helicopters collided and crashed into waters off Torishima Island in the Izu Islands on April 20 while conducting anti-submarine drills at night using sonar equipment. Of the eight crew members on board, one was confirmed dead shortly after. The MSDF has declared the seven other members dead.
Flight recorders from both helicopters and pieces of the aircraft have been retrieved. But their main parts are believed to be lying on the seabed at a depth of about 5,500 meters.
The ministry says JAMSTEC will use Deep Tow, a deep ocean floor survey system equipped with sonar and cameras, to search a wide area of the ocean floor.
Deep Tow has often been used in underwater searches in past accidents.
An MSDF Aegis vessel and a fishing boat collided in 2008. Deep Tow discovered parts of the sunken fishing boat at a depth of over 1,800 meters.
In 1999, it found an engine of an H2 rocket, which crashed into the sea after a failed launch, in waters about 3,000 meters deep off the Ogasawara Islands.