TOKYO (AFP) -- Japanese and American forces scrambled to reach the downed C2-A "Greyhound" aircraft in waters off the remote uninhabited Japanese reef of Okinotori Wednesday.
The U.S. Navy said the rescued personnel were being transferred to USS Ronald Reagan for medical evaluation and were in good condition.
U.S. authorities told Japan that engine trouble was the suspected cause of the accident.
The aircraft carrier was in the Philippine Sea as part of an exercise with Japanese forces, it said.  
The U.S. military has a heavy presence in the western Pacific, with tens of thousands of troops and billions of dollars' worth of hardware stationed throughout Japan and South Korea.
But recent months have taken their toll on the Seventh Fleet, which is headquartered at Yokotsuka, near Tokyo, and U.S. military vessels have been involved in a number of accidents.
The USS John S. McCain collided with a tanker off Singapore in August, killing 10 sailors and injuring five others. Two months earlier in June, the USS Fitzgerald and a cargo ship smashed into each other off Japan, leaving seven sailors dead.
There were also two more, lesser-known incidents. In January USS Antietam ran aground near its base in Japan, and in May, USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel.

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- U.S. forces conducted an airstrike against the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab group in Somalia Tuesday, killing more than 100 jihadists, military officials claimed Wednesday.
The operation occurred 200 kilometers northwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
The U.S. military has in recent months upped the tempo of its operations in Somalia, conducting a growing number of drone strikes.
On November 13, the Pentagon claimed U.S. forces had killed 40 al-Shabab and Daesh fighters in a series of Somalia strikes over several days.
The surge in U.S. operations came after President Donald Trump in March loosened the constraints on the U.S. military to take actions against alleged terrorists when they judge it is needed, without seeking specific White House approval.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is declaring that the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar constitutes "ethnic cleansing."
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says that "no provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities that have ensued." He's blaming Myanmar's forces and "local vigilantes."
Tillerson says those responsible "must be held accountable."
U.S. lawmakers and rights groups have been urging the Trump administration to call it ethnic cleansing. Tillerson acted on a recent recommendation from the State Department.
The declaration is likely to increase pressure on the Trump administration and Congress to move toward new sanctions on Myanmar. Sanctions on the Southeast Asian nation were eased in recent years as the country made steps toward transitioning to democracy.

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SINGAPORE (AFP) -- Driverless buses will appear on some roads in Singapore from 2022 as part of plans to improve mobility in the land-scarce city-state, its transport minister said Wednesday.
Singapore has so far avoided the massive traffic jams that choke other Asian cities like Manila and Jakarta by imposing road tolls, spending massively on public transport and becoming one of the world's most expensive places to own a car.
It now plans to embrace self-driving technology to further reduce reliance on cars and improve how people get around.
Driverless buses will be deployed during off-peak traffic hours in three new suburban towns designed to accommodate the vehicles in a pilot project, said Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
"The autonomous vehicles will greatly enhance the accessibility and connectivity of our public transport system, particularly for the elderly families with young children and the less mobile," he said at the launch of a test centre for self-driving vehicles.
 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) -- In a heist reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, Kenyan robbers spent months tunneling into the bowels of a bank located opposite a police station and stole the equivalent of half a million dollars.
Police said they had arrested two men and one woman over the robbery but had not recovered the 50 million Kenyan shillings, reported missing by staff at the branch of Kenya Commercial Bank Monday when they showed up to work.
"We have not recovered the stolen money,” said Simba Willy, sub-county police commander in the town of Thika, northeast of Nairobi, where the heist took place.
"We suspect the robbers hired one of the shops near the bank (while digging their tunnel),” he told Reuters.
The robbers were able to remove the earth during their monthslong excavations without arousing suspicion by concealing it in boxes, the Daily Nation newspaper quoted local traders as saying.
 
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NANTERRE/PARIS (Reuters) -- French far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused banks Wednesday of closing accounts that belong to her and her party, saying she has been the victim of a "banking fatwa" meant to silence her National Front.
The 49-year-old is smarting from defeat in presidential and parliamentary elections this year, during which she already accused French banks of being politically biased for not giving loans to finance her campaigns.
"This is an attempt to suffocate an opposition party and no democrat should accept that," Le Pen told a news conference, calling on President Emmanuel Macron and other political parties to back the National Front.