Lance Cpl. Samantha K. Torres(TOKYO) — A U.S. Marine pilot who ejected from an F/A-18 fighter jet off the eastern coast of Japan has been recovered by a Japanese naval vessel, officials said Thursday. The status of the pilot’s condition is unknown.

The III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan, has said that Japan’s Ministry of Defense announced that the pilot was found, a U.S. defense official told ABC News.

The Japanese Defense Ministry announced that a Japanese Self-Defense Force rescue boat had retrieved the pilot from waters east of Japan, according to the Kyodo News Agency.

Initial efforts to locate the pilot on Wednesday proved unsuccessful leading U.S. and Japanese officials to broaden the search radius for the missing pilot and increase the number of search assets.

The condition of the pilot was not disclosed.

A search-and-rescue operation was launched on Wednesday after the pilot ejected from his F/A-18 aircraft during a scheduled training mission.

The pilot had ejected at about 4:40 a.m. ET, 120 miles southeast of Iwakuni, Japan, according to Marine Corps Base Camp Butler in Okinawa. The F/A-18 was assigned to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa and was conducting “regularly scheduled training at the time of the mishap,” Marine Corps Base Camp Butler said.

Another F/A-18 fighter that was flying with the one that went down remained in the area until it had to leave because it was running out of fuel, officials said.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Wednesday that a number of U.S. and Japanese air and surface vessels were involved in the search-and-rescue efforts.

The USS Montford Point, an expeditionary Transfer Dock, was searching the area and the guided missile destroyer USS Wilbur Curtis was moving to the search area, officials said at the time the search-and-rescue efforts were launched.

Three Japanese ships and multiple Japanese fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft also assisted in the search, officials said.

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.