U.S. Marine pilot missing after plane goes down off Japan

(Reuters) - A U.S. Marine pilot is missing after ejecting from a fighter jet off the coast of Japan on Wednesday, officials said.

The pilot assigned to the U.S. 1st Marine aircraft wing in Okinawa, Japan, was on a routine training mission in an F/A-18 Hornet, said Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis.

The pilot ejected about 120 miles (190 km) southeast of Iwakuni, Japan, the U.S. military said in a statement. The strike fighter went down over water, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman 1st Lieutenant Joseph Butterfield said in an email.

Japanese and U.S. search and rescue teams are looking for the pilot and the cause of the mishap is under investigation, Davis said.

The plane went down on the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which drew the United States into World War Two.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to go to Pearl Harbor this month in the first visit of its kind by a Japanese leader.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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