V-22 har hatt problemer gjennom hele sitt liv. Det dukker opp elementer som ikke har sammenhng med tidligere hendelser. Fikser man dette nå er spørsmålet: Når skjer det noe alvorlig igjen? (Red.)
Pentagon IDs possible cause of Nov. 29 Osprey crash that killed 8
Tara Copp
Wed, February 7, 2024 at 3:56 PM GMT+1·3 min read
The Pentagon
believes it has identified the mechanical failure that led to a fatal crash of an Osprey aircraft in
Japan and the grounding of the fleet for
two months, a U.S. defense official told The Associated Press. It is now
weighing how the aircraft can be returned to service.
The Pentagon’s
Joint Safety Council is now working with the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps
on plans to get Osprey crews ready to fly again, said Navy Rear Adm. Chris
Engdahl, chairman of the council and commander of Naval Safety Command.
The Air Force
investigation is continuing into the Nov. 29 Air Force special operations
command CV-22 crash, which killed eight service members. The crash led to a rare
grounding on Dec. 6 of about 400 Osprey aircraft across the three services.
Japan also grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys following the crash.
The official who
said the mechanical failure had been identified declined to say what the failure
was. The discovery has opened the door to discussions on returning the aircraft
to flight because mitigations can be put in place. The official was not
authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of
anonymity.
While each service
will determine when it returns its own fleets to the skies, the council is
talking with “commanders across the services on what are their plans to come
back to flight, what are their risk decisions,” Engdahl said. “In aviation,
they’ve done this before, but probably not on this broad scale with a platform
like we have in the V-22″ Osprey.
That could include
getting service-wide input on how many simulator hours are needed to get a crew
back to proficiency, with what type of flying, and what maintenance is needed
on each Osprey before they return to the air again, Engdahl said.
Flight safety is
dependent on pilots maintaining currency on an aircraft — meaning that they are
flying regularly enough to be proficient in all types of flying, such as night
missions, close formation flying or refueling. After 60 days of being grounded,
that will be one of the key issues the services must prepare for as the Ospreys
return to flight.
They also must
make sure the aircraft are ready. Both the Air Force and Marine Corps have been
running the Osprey’s engines; the Marines have been conducting ground movements
to keep the aircraft working.
Marine Corps
leadership is also working on a message to send throughout the service that
could give each unit up to 30 days to re-certify crews and ensure they are
ready to return to flight, according to a second defense official, who also
spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been announced
publicly.
Marine Corps
spokeswoman Capt. Alyssa Myers said the service is cooperating closely with the
Air Force and Navy “to make an informed decision for the MV-22′s return to
flight. The safety and well-being of our personnel and the reliability of the
V-22 continues to be a priority in our discussions as we determine our return
to flight.”
The Osprey is a
fast-moving airframe that can take off like a helicopter and then tilt its
engines and rotor blades to a horizontal position to fly like an airplane.
While the current
Osprey stand-down is one of the largest military aircraft groundings in terms
of affecting three services’ flight operations, it’s not the longest. When the
Osprey was still in development, two Osprey crashes in 2000 killed 23 Marines
and led the Marine Corps to ground the program for nearly 18 months.
The Joint Safety Council was
established by Congress to get a stronger services-wide look at safety issues
following a string of deadly aviation crashes in 2018.
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