Newsday

Chopper, Plane Crash in Japan, 4 Die

TOKYO (AP) -- A helicopter collided with a small, privately owned plane in western Japan on Saturday, killing at least four people, officials said.

The crash occurred at about 11:30 a.m. in Kuwana City, about 200 miles southwest of Tokyo, said Yoshinobu Yamaguchi, a local police spokesman.

Television footage from public broadcaster NHK showed the burned shells of two houses that were hit by fragments of the aircraft. Cars in the path of flaming fragments were also destroyed, but it was not clear whether there were any injuries, NHK reported.

The identities of the dead were not immediately available.

AP-NY-05-19-01 0016EDT< 

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), May 19, 2001