On Wednesday, the U.S. Air Force declared a grounding of its entire fleet of Osprey aircraft following revelations from investigators regarding the recent Osprey crash off the coast of Japan.
The crash, which occurred last week and resulted in the tragic loss of all eight U.S. airmen on board, is suspected to have been caused by a potential equipment malfunction.
Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, stated in a release that he initiated an “operational standdown” for all CV-22 Ospreys based on a preliminary investigation pointing to a potential materiel failure. However, the specific cause of this failure remains unknown, according to Bauernfeind.
“The standdown will allow for a comprehensive investigation to identify causal factors and make recommendations to ensure the safe return of the Air Force CV-22 fleet to flight operations,” Bauernfeind explained.
This decision followed a formal request from Tokyo for the U.S. military to ground its Ospreys in Japan until thorough safety inspections could be conducted. The crashed Osprey, assigned to Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, was on a training flight when it went down on November 29 off the southern Japanese island of Yakushima.
Departing from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, it was en route to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa but requested an emergency landing on Yakushima before the crash occurred.
Witnesses reported that the aircraft flipped over, caught fire, and then plunged into the ocean. Three out of the eight crew members’ remains have been recovered so far, with the bodies of the remaining five still inside the submerged wreckage. Divers from both the U.S. and Japanese militaries recently located a significant portion of the fuselage.
Several fatal U.S. Osprey crashes have occurred in recent years, including one during a multinational training exercise on an Australian island in August, resulting in three U.S. Marines killed and eight others hospitalized. In June of 2022, all five U.S. Marines on board another Osprey died when it crashed in the California desert. The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft designed for troop and supply transport, capable of taking off and landing like a helicopter while also flying like a plane.
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