A Cessna 208B Supervan 900, registered VH-FAY, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, at 120 km east of Sendai, Japan. The sole Norwegian pilot was missing and assumed to have died.
The plane took off from Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, USA at ca. 07:00 Japan Standard Time (JST) for an international flight to New Chitose, Japan with estimated flight time of 9 hours. Though the position report at 10:23 JST was normally established, the next report planed at 11:44 JST was not received by the Japanese ATC. Two F-4's of Japan Air Self-Defense Force noticed the aircraft flying normally at 14:50 JST over the Pacific Ocean, but could not establish any radio contact with the flight. They lost the Caravan due to clouds. Radar contact with the flight was lost at 15:28 JST. Parts of the plane were found floating on the water at 17:23 LT.
The aircraft was modified for geophysical survey work and converted to a Texas Turbine Conversions Supervan 900 using an 850 hp Honeywell TPE331-12JR engine (as opposed to the standard 675 hp PT6A-114A engine), and a 4-bladed prop.