A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle, assigned to the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., lands at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, July 1, 2025. (Nathaniel Jackson/U.S. Air Force)
An F-15E Strike Eagle made a precautionary arrested landing Tuesday at Kadena Air Base, eight days after another fighter landed at the base on Okinawa with a missing wheel, according to local media reports.
The multirole fighter assigned to the 18th Wing at Kadena landed between 9:30 and 9:40 a.m., the Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo reported, each citing unnamed eyewitnesses. The aircraft was towed to the tarmac after maintainers inspected it, the papers reported.
An arrested landing, routine on Navy aircraft carriers, occurs when a plane’s tailhook snags one of several cables on the flight deck, bringing the aircraft to a rapid stop. Air Force arresting systems stop an aircraft on the runway in the event something may prevent it from stopping on its own.
The wing declined to confirm or deny the landing in an unsigned email Wednesday.
“Precautionary landings are standard procedure when pilots notice something out of the ordinary with their aircraft,” it said. “We are committed to conducting safe flight operations as we uphold our defense commitments.”
A spokesman with the Okinawa Defense Bureau by phone Wednesday also declined to confirm or deny the landing. Some Japanese government officials may speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.
Two airmen with the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., safely landed an F-15E with a missing wheel at Kadena on Aug. 4.
The aircraft was en route to Okinawa from U.S. Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, a remote island base in the Indian Ocean approximately 4,300 miles away, when the wheel was discovered to be missing, the release said. It was recovered on the flightline at Diego Garcia.
Kadena’s F-15Es were to undergo safety checks and return to flying “immediately following the inspection,” the wing said in a news release Aug. 6.
The wing on Wednesday declined to answer questions about the inspection, referring to the release. Strike Eagles resumed flights from Kadena on Friday, the Times and Shimpo both reported without citing sources.
Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson have operated from Kadena since April alongside two F-35A Lightning II rotational squadrons from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The service instituted rotational fighter deployments to Kadena when it began phasing out the aging F-15C/D fleet there in late 2022.
Stars and Stripes reporter Keishi Koja contributed to this report.
AloJapan.com