GIFU (Kyodo) -- A small two-seater helicopter crashed into a rice field in central Japan on Sunday, with the two elderly men on board taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Police received an emergency call from a witness to the incident, which occurred about 11 a.m. in Gujo, Gifu Prefecture. No individuals other than the 77-year-old and 83-year-old men on board were affected by the accident, they said.

The privately owned helicopter took off from a heliport in Minokamo in the same prefecture at around 10:20 a.m. before crashing from a height of about 2.5 meters for an unknown reason and overturning, according to the police.

The 77-year-old man was piloting the helicopter and attempting to land at a heliport in Gujo, about 50 kilometers away, the police said.