A single-engine propeller plane crashed at Yao Airport in Osaka Prefecture at about 4:20 p.m. Saturday, with all four people on board confirmed dead inside the aircraft.
The Osaka prefectural police were investigating the accident as a case of professional negligence resulting in deaths. The police were to identify the victims, all of whom are believed to be men, and the cause of the accident.
According to the transport ministry, the captain of the plane was a man named Yasushi Nishimoto.
According to the ministry and the Yao Airport office, the four-seater Mooney M20C was heading for the airport in the city of Yao after departing from Kobe Airport in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture at 4:03 p.m.
The plane crashed into a grassy area near the 1,490-meter Runway A, one of the two runways at Yao Airport, and burst into flames after notifying an air controller that it would make a repeat landing attempt.
The cockpit of the small plane, which is seven meters long and 10.7 meters wide, was completely destroyed in the crash, according to the police and firefighters.
The fire was extinguished about 4:40 p.m.
Visibility was good at the time of the accident while the wind speed was 1.5 meters per second at 4 p.m.
The Japan Transport Safety Board were to send two investigators to the airport.
In May 2015, the plane obtained a certificate of airworthiness after clearing checks by government inspectors. Aircraft must obtain the certificate every year. It was registered in 1997.
Yao Airport, located in a residential district, is about 15 kilometers southeast of Osaka Station of West Japan Railway Co., or JR West.
The airport is used mainly for flights for aerial surveys, pilot training and sightseeing, but not for regular flight services. It was fully returned from the U.S. military in 1954 and put into service in 1960.
(culled from www.the-japan-news.com)
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