TOKYO: Three more bodies and a dilapidated wooden boat have washed ashore in northern Japan in a seasonal influx that has sharply increased this year.
Winds and water currents push dozens of boats onto Japan’s northern coasts annually, mostly rickety North Korean boats that lack the sturdiness and equipment to return home.
The Coast Guard said a Japanese fishing boat picked up a male body floating off the coast of Sakata in Yamagata prefecture Monday, and two more bodies washed up on the nearby beach an hour and half later. Officials are investigating if the bodies were from a boat that washed ashore Saturday.
Twenty-eight similar boat arrivals were detected in November, up from 4 last year.
Authorities are investigating 18 survivors from those boats who say they are North Korean.
More bodies believed N. Korean wash up on Japan coast
More bodies believed N. Korean wash up on Japan coast
Helicopter crash on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro kills five, aviation authority says
- The helicopter crashed near the mountain’s Barafu Camp on Wednesday
- The helicopter was on a medical rescue mission
DAR ES SALAAM: A helicopter crashed on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while local media reported that the aircraft was on a medical rescue mission.
Those killed were identified as a guide and a doctor — both Tanzanians — the Zimbabwean pilot and two tourists from the Czech Republic, the Tanzania National Parks said in a statement.
The helicopter crashed near the mountain’s Barafu Camp on Wednesday, Tanzania’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
The Mwananchi newspaper and East Africa TV, citing Kilimanjaro region’s head of police, reported that the helicopter was on a medical rescue mission.
Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, is nearly 6,000 meters (20,000 ft) above sea level. The crash happened between 4,670 and 4,700 meters, Mwananchi reported.
Around 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually.
