The Marine Corps is investigating how a shipping container fell from a helicopter into the sea off the western coast of Okinawa.
The Tai-Con shipping container reportedly fell from a CH-53E Super Stallion while it was between Irisuna and Tonaki islands around 12:30 p.m. local time Tuesday. No injuries were reported during the incident.
“1st MAW takes all aviation related events seriously and will conduct a thorough review to determine the cause of the incident,” read a statement from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, according to Military.com.
The pilots in the helicopter were returning from an exercise on Irisuna when the shipping container was dropped.
Marines are assessing whether the container, which was carrying military field rations and less than 3 gallons of fuel in a sealed vessel, is salvageable, said spokesman Maj. Ken Kunze.
The contents of the vessel were used by the 3rd Marine Logistics Group and Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 for an expeditionary advanced base operation called Poseidon’s Watertower 21.
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This is the third incident in the past eight years in which a Marine Corps aircraft dropped something at Okinawa, which is off the coast of Japan.
In December 2017, a window fell from a Super Stallion and landed on an elementary school field, and in August 2019, a Super Stallion lost a cabin window over open water.
