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TOKYO, March 6 (Xinhua) -- All nine people on board a helicopter that crashed in a mountainous area of Nagano Prefecture in central Japan have been confirmed dead, local police officials said Monday.
Police officials in the area told local media that rescue services alongside a contingent of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) found the bodies of the all-male crew in and around the wreckage of the helicopter.
The Bell 412 EP, which belonged to the local government and was going to be used to conduct a drill to rescue stranded climbers off a mountain, crashed on Sunday afternoon on Mt. Hachibuse, in Nagano Prefecture.
Earlier on Monday, local police said that the rescue teams had found all nine people from the crashed helicopter with the search being delayed on Sunday due to bad weather.
Local police had initially said that five people had died and four were showing no vital signs of life at the site of the crashed aircraft Monday morning.
The police in the region have identified five of the victims from the helicopter crash.
The men police confirmed dead are one pilot and four firefighters who belong to Nagano Prefecture's Fire and Disaster Management and Aviation Center, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said.
The police have yet to identify the other four victims, according to NHK.
The helicopter took off from Matsumoto airport for a mountain rescue drill, according to local reports on Sunday.
The police said the crashed chopper was found near Mt. Hachibuse, which straddles Matsumoto and Okaya Cities.
The nine people aboard the helicopter included a pilot, seven fire fighters and an engineer.
A regular inspection was conducted on the crashed helicopter in February, local officials said, adding that no abnormalities were found at that time.
