Following the crash of a US military plane last week, the US military has temporarily retired hundreds of V-22 Osprey aircraft. Initial investigations show that the accident near Japan was due to a material defect, it is said.
The entire fleet of this type must remain grounded while the investigation into the cause of the crash continues, as the United States Air Force (Air Force Special Operations Command, AFSOC for short) and the United States Navy (US Naval Air Systems Command), NAVAIR for short ) announced.
Indications of possible material defects
Preliminary results would indicate a possible material error, the AFSOC wrote on Wednesday (local time). As a precaution, NAVAIR announced on Thursday that it agreed with the decision. According to the Washington Post, the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps use more than 400 V-22 aircraft.
There have been repeated accidents in the past with this type of aircraft. Most recently, on November 29, a US military Osprey with eight people on board crashed off the coast of Japan. The US military said on Tuesday that three bodies had been recovered and three more had been located.
Manufacturer “ready to provide support”
Boeing and Bell, which jointly manufacture the plane, are “ready to provide assistance if the U.S. military requests it,” the companies told The Washington Post.
As recently as August, three US Marines died during an exercise in Australia when they crashed another Osprey model. According to The New York Times, more than sixty deaths have occurred as a result of accidents involving the Osprey since the American military took the aircraft into use in the early 1990s.
Can take off and land like helicopters
According to the manufacturer, the machine takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter using rotors and can then fly like an airplane at high speed and at high altitude. Japan also uses Osprey models. In response to the latest accident, the country has temporarily suspended all flights of its own fourteen aircraft.
Source: Krone
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