The plane crashed around 6:00pm local time in the Kochi Prefecture, the report said, adding that the pilot survived; RT reported.
The US Marine Corps’ Iwakuni Air Station hosts around 5,000 American troops and is used for Marine pilot training and to conduct air patrols with F/A-18 Hornets.
This incident is the latest in a series of F/A-18 crashes apparently plaguing the Marine Corps. In November two Hornets collided near Miramar in California during a training mission, forcing one of the pilots to eject.
In late October an F/A-18 pilot had to eject the plane after landing at the Twentynine Palms Strategic Expeditionary Landing Field and suffered minor injuries.
In July, another F/A-18C Hornet crash in Twentynine Palms killed 36-year old Marine, Maj. Richard Norton during a training mission.
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