by JIJI KYODO

Local authorities lodged a protest Wednesday with the central government and the U.S. military after a U.S. Air Force member’s parachute fell onto the grounds of a school near Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo the day before. “It could have been a life-threatening incident” and was extremely regrettable, Shin Namiki, mayor of the city of Hamura, said in letters to the U.S. military and the Japanese Defense Ministry, according to the municipal government.