A US Navy aircraft with 11 crew members and passengers on board crashed into the ocean southeast of Okinawa, Japan, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a statement.
The aircraft was headed to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which is deployed to the Philippine Sea. A search and rescue operation was launched from the carrier, the Seventh Fleet said in it's statement.
Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera said that U.S. Navy officials had informed him the crash could be the result of engine problems. The U.S. Navy said earlier that the cause of the crash was unclear, CBS News reported.
According to Japan's defense minister, 8 people on board were found, but it was unclear whether they were alive.
The C-2 "Greyhound" aircraft crashed into the Pacific about 90 miles northwest of Okinotorishima, a Japanese atoll, Onodera said, according to a ministry spokesman.
