A search team investigating the crash of a U.S. military aircraft off the coast of a Japanese island discovered a large part of the aircraft wreckage and the bodies of five missing crew members.
An Air Force CV-22B Osprey carrying eight crew members crashed last Wednesday off the coast of Japan’s Yakushima Island, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
A press release Monday from Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) stated that a combined Japanese and U.S. search team discovered an additional five bodies of crew members when “surface ships and dive teams were able to locate remains, along with the main fuselage of the aircraft wreckage.”
There will be an “ongoing combined effort to recover the remaining crew members from the wreckage,” adding that the identities of the five additional bodies “have yet to be determined and will be released at a later date.”
Divers from the rescue team successfully recovered two of the five new bodies and were working to recover the remaining three.
An earlier statement from the AFSOC said that the crash occurred during “a routine training mission,” but the “cause of the mishap is currently unknown.”
The first body discovered following the crash was identified as Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” M. Galliher, a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Galliher was a distinguished soldier who was an “Honor Graduate of Basic Military Training, Distinguished Graduate of the Air Force’s Cryptologic Language Analyst Course and Honor Graduate of the Defense Language Institute’s Chinese Language Course.”
U.S. Air Force Maj Gilbert Summers, 43d Intelligence Squadron, Detachment 1 Commander, said that Galliher “brought the unit together on and off-duty through humor and an inexhaustible supply of energy, whether it was on the aircraft, in the gym, or on the slopes with the team.”
“Jacob was a beloved husband, father, son, and brother, as well as a model Airman who will be forever remembered for his dedication to this great nation and his fellow warriors,” added Summers.
“Everywhere he went, and everyone he met, was made better for him being there. He has left an indelible mark as a devoted family man, steadfast wingman, and an irreplaceable Airman in both duty and compassion. Jacob’s tremendous legacy will live on through his beautiful family and through all of us who had the honor of knowing him.”