A cargo ship carrying a US tiltrotor aircraft arrived in western Japan Monday despite fierce opposition among locals concerned about the plane's safety, news reports said.
The Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey aircraft is to receive safety checks and trial flights at a US military base in Iwakuni on the southwestern tip of Honshu island. It is then to be deployed to another US base on the southern island of Okinawa to replace CH-46 helicopters there, dpa reported.
An Osprey crashed in Morocco in April, killing two, and a crash in Florida in June injured an entire crew. An Osprey's emergency landing this month in North Carolina added to Japanese concerns.
The United States promised to inform Japan speedily of the findings of its investigations into the crashes.
The rotors on tiltrotor aircraft can be positioned vertically or horizontally, allowing them to be flown like both a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft.