In the wake of a U.S. F-16 fighter jet belonging to the Misawa Air Base in northern Japan dumping two fuel tanks mid-flight, it has been learned that the US military base told the local government on December 1 that the tanks were jettisoned because of an engine trouble warning.
Two fuel tanks were dumped on the night of November 30, after a fighter jet made an emergency landing at the Aomori Airport in the city of Aomori. One of the tanks was found near a house in the Fukaura Prefecture town.
The other tank was initially not found, but the base announced on December 2 that it had been located in a wooded area in the same town. The Ministry of Defense said the site was about 900 meters southeast of where the first was found. As for tanks, the U.S. military had initially announced that they had been dumped near Mount Iwaki east of Fukaura, and a senior defense ministry official criticized this, saying it was outside the margin of error. According to the Misawa Municipal Government, the deputy commander of the U.S. air base explained on December 1 that two F-16 fighter jets had taken off from the base for training and were flying west when a warning was displayed on one of the jets.
The fuel tanks are to be disconnected in case of engine trouble and other problems to make the aircraft lighter, and the pilot should head for the nearest airport, according to the U.S. military manual. The warning signs were believed to have been reacted to by the fighter jet that showed the warning signs.
The deputy commander also revealed that the pilot said they had selected an area where there were no buildings and no people and then jettisoned the tanks. The pilot said that the other jet had circled over the dumped area to make sure there was no fire.
The Ministry of Defense had requested the U.S. military to suspend F- 16 fighter flights until their safety was confirmed, but their flights resumed on December 2 at Misawa Air Base.