Two reporters working for Nippon Television Network Corp. were confirmed dead Sunday after they had climbed to a mountain in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture of Japan to cover the fatal crash a week earlier of a rescue helicopter, Xinhua reported according to local media.
Kyodo News said the two men, with whom the broadcaster had lost contact, are Yuji Kita, a 30-year-old reporter who lives in the city of Saitama, and Jun Kawakami, a 43-year-old photographer from Tokyo.
They began climbing the mountain from a forest road in Chichibu around 10 a.m. Saturday but when they had not returned by 6 p.m., Nippon TV contacted the police.
A police mountain rescue unit found the two men, who were in a state of unconsciousness about 1.5 kilometers downstream the site of the jet crash, around 9:10 a.m. Sunday, Sankei News reported.
In the July 25 crash, five of the seven people aboard the helicopter belonging to the Saitama prefectural government died as they tried to rescue a 55-year-old female climber who fell into the basin of a waterfall and was later confirmed dead.