The US military on Sunday said a helicopter crash in Japan that injured three Marines nine days ago was caused by a missing part and the problem was unique to the aircraft involved.The flaw that led to the loss of tail rotor control on August 13 would not prevent other CH-53D Sea Stallion transport helicopters from going on an upcoming mission to Iraq, it said. Those helicopters were to leave Sunday.
No civilians were hurt, but there were protests after the aircraft swiped a campus building as it crashed onto the grounds of Okinawa International University in Ginowan, some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
"A small retaining device in a subcomponent of the tail rotor assembly was missing, leading to a loss of tail rotor control," the Marine Corps Base at Camp S.D. Butler in Japan's southern Okinawa said in a statement.
"The cause was solely unique to the CH-53D involved in the accident," the statement said.
All CH-53Ds had been grounded and checked following the incident.
Around 44,600 US troops are based in Japan, two-thirds of whom are stationed in Okinawa.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed in June to make "sincere efforts" to reduce the "heavy" burden on Okinawans from having US military facilities close by, made worse by a series of crimes committed by US soldiers.
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