TOKYO – A Japanese military helicopter carrying two crewmembers crashed insouthwestern Japan on Monday, ripping the top floor off a house and settingit on fire, officials said.

The Defense Ministry said both crewmembers suffered heart and lung failure.

The Boeing AH-64 combat helicopter, belonging to the Ground Self-DefenseForce’s Metabaru training camp, crashed in Kanzaki city in Saga prefecture,defense officials said.

Public broadcaster NHK showed orange flames and black smoke rising from thecharred house, which had its upper floor torn off. Witnesses reported a bigboom and ripping noises from the sky before the crash.

The four residents of the damaged house were believed to have been away atthe time of the accident, said Masaki Endo, a disaster official at the Sagaprefectural government. No one else on the ground was believed to have beenhurt, he added.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the helicopter fell nose down afterlosing contact with air traffic control. He said the cause of the accidentis under investigation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the grounding of all 12 helicopters ofthe same type for safety checks, Kyodo News agency reported.

The crash follows a series of emergency landings and other incidentsinvolving U.S. military aircraft on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa. -Agencies