A U.S. Air Force Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed Wednesday during what U.S. officials said was a „routine training mission“ off the coast of Japan, the latest in a string of deadly mishaps involving the aviation hybrid that can take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane.
A U.S. Air Force Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed Wednesday during what U.S. officials said was a “routine training mission” off the coast of Japan, the latest in a string of deadly mishaps involving the aviation hybrid that can take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane.
The crash killed at least one of the six U.S. crew members believed to be on board, the Japanese coast guard told the Associated Press, and the status of the other crew members was not immediately known.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki told reporters Wednesday that he would ask the U.S. military to suspend all Osprey flights in Japan as the crash was being investigated.
The Osprey program has been plagued with problems, both financial and mechanical, since it first rolled off the assembly line and was shipped to the Marine Corps, which remains its primary customer. It has a sticker price of more than $70 million per helicopter.
However, the highest cost may be more than 50 service members who have died since June 1991 after dozens of Osprey aviation incidents ranging from a full crash to a hard landing on an airstrip.
