US military grounds entire fleet of Osprey V-22 aircraft after deadly Japan crash
- The move came after a preliminary probe of last week’s crash indicated that a materiel failure led to the deaths
- Japan grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the accident that raised new questions about the safety of the helicopters
The air force, navy and marine corps took the extraordinary step of grounding hundreds of aircraft after a preliminary investigation of last week’s crash indicated that a materiel failure – that something went wrong with the aircraft – and not a mistake by the crew led to the deaths.
The crash raised new questions about the safety of the Osprey, which has been involved in multiple fatal accidents over its relatively short time in service.
Japan grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the crash.
“It goes without saying that ensuring flight safety is the highest priority in the operation of aircraft,” Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno said on Thursday. “We will continue to request information sharing with the US side to ensure flight safety.”
Lieutenant General Tony Bauernfeind, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, directed the stand-down “to mitigate risk while the investigation continues,” the command said in a statement. “Preliminary investigation information indicates a potential materiel failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time.”
In a separate notice, Naval Air Systems Command said it was grounding all Ospreys. The command is responsible for the marine corps and navy variants of the aircraft.
