- Last month’s crash of an Air Force CV-22B Osprey is the newest in a string of fatal crashes, leading the Air Force and Navy to ground their fleets.
- Crashes between March 2022 and November 2023 have killed 20 U.S. military personnel.
- The Osprey’s crash rate is higher than its equivalent within the U.S. Army, however the Osprey’s clear benefits make it the one appropriate aircraft for some missions.
An aircraft that had seemingly shed its fame for deadly accidents has develop into controversial once more following a crash late last month that marked its fourth fatal incident in lower than two years.
The V-22 Osprey, which is in service with the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy, is one of the capable vertical takeoff and landing aircraft on the earth. But that capability comes with a value: the aircraft has a mishap rate greater than thrice that of its less-capable counterpart, the Army’s UH-60 Blackhawk.
Following probably the most recent accident—which took place on November 29 off the coast of Kagoshima in Southern Japan, and killed all eight crew members—the Air Force and Navy have grounded their V-22 fleets, in line with a December 6 statement from Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). On December 7, Naval Air Systems Command put out its own statement that it will ground all variants of the V-22 Osprey “out of an abundance of caution.” This features a variant that the Marines operate.
A Crash Off the Coast of Japan
A neighborhood eyewitness to the November 29 crash told Japan’s NHK that the aircraft was flying the wrong way up when a hearth broke out on the left wing. An explosion followed, upon which the Osprey went straight down, without gliding. NHK later reported the aircraft was flying from U.S. Marine Corps’ Air Station Iwakuni to Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa. The aircraft modified its destination to Yakushima Airport on the island of Yakushima, but crashed en route.
The eight crew members who died were U.S. Air Force airmen assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing, based at Yokota Air Base. The stays of all eight have been recovered.
The Air Force described the flight as a “routine training mission.” In response to AFSOC, a preliminary investigation indicates a “potential materiel failure caused the mishap, however the underlying explanation for the failure is unknown at the moment.”
The Osprey’s Controversial Past
The V-22 Osprey was unveiled in 1989 because the world’s first operational tiltrotor aircraft. It spent an unusual 18 years in development, finally entering service in 2007 with the U.S. Marine Corps. The MV-22 replaced the Vietnam-era CH-46 Sea Knight because the medium lift aircraft for the Marines, with the service currently fielding about 298 of a planned 360-strong fleet. The Air Force operates 52 CV-22B Ospreys as a long-range special operations transport, while the U.S. Navy plans to buy 48 CMV-22Bs as a carrier onboard delivery aircraft, shuttling supplies between land and underway aircraft carriers.
The Osprey’s development period was noted for several high-profile crashes, with three happening between 1992 and 2000, and a complete of 30 personnel killed. This resulted within the aircraft’s nickname “The Widowmaker,” and the aircraft got here under heavy criticism on each safety and value grounds.
The tiltrotor had a reasonably good safety rate at introduction through the 2010s, with just seven major incidents, but recently there’s been a burst of fatal accidents. 4 Marines were killed in Norway in March 2022 in a crash attributed to pilot error. Five Marines were killed in June 2022 in Southern California, attributed to a malfunctioning aircraft clutch. Three were killed in a crash in Australia in August 2023 in an accident still under investigation.
The Osprey had a “Class A” accident rate of three.61 per 100,000 flight hours, in line with the Marine Corps in July 2022. That was before the last two accidents in Australia and Japan. The Pentagon describes Class A accidents as a “direct mishap cost totaling $2,500,000 or more, an accident involving a fatality or everlasting total disability, or destruction of a Department of Defense aircraft.”
By comparison, the UH-60 Black Hawk medium assault helicopter’s Class A rate in U.S. Army service was .87 in 2021. The comparison is somewhat an apples-to-oranges situation, nonetheless, because the Osprey costs $84 million per aircraft, while the Black Hawk costs $19 million. Generally speaking, the costlier aircraft will typically incur a greater damage cost, and an accident that may be a Class A for the Osprey might be a Class B (lower than $2.5 million, involving a everlasting disability, or three injuries) and even Class C (lower than $600,000 in damage) for the Black Hawk. Still, a Class A accident rate nearly 4 times greater than the UH-60 is little question high.
Tiltrotor Benefits
The helicopter was the dominant vertical takeoff and landing aircraft type from World War II until the U.S. Marine Corps agreed to buy the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor in 1989. The tiltrotor design, which incorporates two turboshaft engines driving two large propellers, allows the aircraft to take off vertically, like a helicopter, after which rotate the propellers 90 degrees to fly like a traditional aircraft. The Osprey was the primary operational aircraft that would fly in each modes in the identical flight.
The tiltrotor capability gave the Osprey the most effective of each worlds. The aircraft could take off and land from amphibious assault ships or improvised landing pads on land, cruise in conventional mode at 260 knots (versus 152 knots for the UH-60M Black Hawk), and self-deploy as much as 2,100 nautical miles (1,071 miles for the Black Hawk). The Osprey can fly faster and farther than conventional helicopters, making for more flexibility in missions and a greater likelihood of catching an enemy by surprise.
The Takeaway
November’s fatal accident involving an Osprey is just the newest in a string of 4 crashes in lower than two years. While one accident was declared pilot error, at the least one other had a mechanical cause. The Osprey may deliver greater capability to America’s fighting forces, nevertheless it also could also be a little bit more dangerous.