Window falls from US military copter near Tokyo

Tokyo : A window fell off a US military helicopter on Friday at a US base near Tokyo, Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said.

The window fell immediately after the helicopter took off from the Atsugi base in Kanagawa prefecture. No one was injured in the incident, Onodera told reporters.

It was not clear yet which type of the helicopter it was and the Defence Ministry asked the US military to provide more information and prevent similar incidents from happening again, Onodera was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency.

A similar incident happened in Okinawa last December, as a window fell off a US military CH-53E transport helicopter when it was flying over an elementary school near a US base in the southernmost prefecture.

Though the incident caused no injuries, it added fuel to the anti-US base sentiment of local residents in Okinawa as they complain about sufferings caused by aircraft noise, crimes committed by US servicemen as well as safety concerns.