Overview
- The single‑engine Cirrus SR20 left Saga Airport around 10:13 a.m. en route to Yao Airport in Osaka Prefecture before contact was lost after a distress signal was detected.
- Residents reported a crash and black smoke in Hoshinomura, Yame City, around 10:45 a.m., leading responders to a remote, mountainous site near the Ōita border.
- Fire crews descended by helicopter around midday and located three people and wreckage; police later confirmed all three were dead at the scene.
- Officials said the privately owned aircraft was heavily damaged and burned, leaving the airframe fragmented and the registration unverified.
- Flight‑plan records indicated three male occupants, named by sources as Taiji Matsuno, Taizo Tsuji and Akira Okamoto, as police and safety investigators prepare detailed on‑site examinations.