A sightseeing helicopter carrying three people went missing near the crater of Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Fire authorities discovered what appears to be wreckage inside the crater around 4 p.m. The whereabouts of those on board remain unknown.
On January 21, a sightseeing helicopter carrying three people went missing during a flight over Mount Aso in Aso City, Kumamoto Prefecture. According to Takumi Enterprise, the operator based in Okayama, the U.S.-made Robinson R44 departed at 10:52 a.m. from Aso Cuddly Dominion, a zoo offering panoramic rides, for a 10-minute tour over the crater. This was the third flight of the day, with no issues reported in the previous two.
Aboard were a 64-year-old Japanese pilot with over 40 years of experience and two passengers believed to be travelers from Taiwan—a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s. Around 11 a.m., roughly 10 minutes after takeoff, fire authorities received an emergency alert from a passenger's smartphone, triggered by a strong impact. The helicopter's GPS signal was last detected near the crater and then lost.
Police launched a search after receiving a report of the helicopter's failure to return around 11:50 a.m. Shortly after 4 p.m., firefighters spotted a heavily damaged object resembling the helicopter's body on a slope inside the crater of Mount Nakadake, one of Mount Aso's peaks. The area was cloudy that morning, obscuring visibility, according to the nearby Aso Volcano Museum. A man in his 60s monitoring the restricted zone near the crater said, "I heard something go boom at around 11 a.m., but could not see what happened because it was foggy."
Takumi Enterprise has grounded its entire fleet. In May 2024, one of its helicopters made an emergency landing over Mount Aso due to engine trouble, injuring three people aboard, including fractures. Aso Cuddly Dominion provides these scenic flights amid the region's volcanic landscapes.
