According to an initial inquiry, the Pentagon is temporarily suspending operations of its V-22 Osprey fleet once more after weak metals inside one of the aircraft came apart in flight in November, resulting in an engine failure and a near-crash in New Mexico.
According to Navy spokesman Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, the suspension took effect Monday morning after being suggested by Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, the commander of Naval Air Systems Command, last week.
The Air Force and Navy are both following the indefinite voluntary operating stop as the services consider how to address the safety concern. A request for comment on whether the Marine Corps’ aircraft will follow the operational suspension was not immediately answered.
It’s the most recent issue facing the military’s troubled Osprey aircraft.The Associated Press conducted a thorough examination of the Osprey last month and discovered that many of the incidents are directly related to the aircraft’s design, that safety concerns have escalated over the previous five years, and that parts are wearing out more quickly than anticipated.
In response to that article, lawmakers wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requesting that he reground the Osprey fleet until safety and design concerns raised by the AP could be resolved.
FiLE – Military rescue workers and boaters arrive on the scene of a crash, shortly after it happened, of an experimental V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in the Potomac River just off the Quantico Marine Air Station, July 20, 1992, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Bill Kramer)
Image courtesy of Bill Kramer/Associated Press
The Air Force Special Operations Command is aware of the V-22 Joint Program Office’s request for an operational pause and works closely with them. According to a statement from the command spokesperson, Lt. Col. Becky Heyse, AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Michael Conley has ordered a halt to all CV-22 flight training operations in accordance with their request.
Before we accept risk with unknown factors, we need time and space to comprehend what transpired in the most recent episode, which is why flying training operations are paused.
Similar to a crash off the coast of Japan last November that claimed the lives of eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members, the Nov. 20 event occurred at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Inclusions or weak places in the metal used for the Osprey’s transmission’s crucial gears failed in the disaster in Japan, causing the gears to disintegrate in midair and the aircraft to collapse catastrophically. The crew did not land right away since they were unaware of how critical the malfunction was at the time.
This could have been a life-saving lesson learned from that deadly incident in Japan. The Cannon flight’s crew received identical warnings shortly after takeoff and lost an engine, but they managed to rapidly land the Osprey back on the ground and survived. However, the investigation is still ongoing.
According to a later analysis of the components that failed, comparable metal flaws might have contributed, although to a different component than the one that collapsed in the crash in Japan.
Three decades after the military began using the aircraft, crashes had claimed the lives of 64 soldiers and injured 93 more. When an Osprey tilted violently during takeoff and hit the ground in October, Japan’s military briefly halted its fleet once more.
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