- The Osprey, a plane used for U.S. military operations, has received approval to resume flights after an extensive grounding caused by a fatal crash in Japan.
- The accident grounded the entire fleet of Ospreys in the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy.
- Before clearing the Osprey for flight, officials implemented new safety measures focusing on maintenance inspections.
The Osprey, a cargo plane vital to U.S. military missions, has been approved to fly again after an “unprecedented” part failure killed eight service members in a crash in Japan in November, the US Air Force announced. Naval Air Systems Command Friday.
The crash was the second fatal accident in months and the fourth in two years. It quickly led to an unusual fleet-wide grounding of hundreds of Ospreys in the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy.
Before clearing the Osprey, which can fly as a plane and then convert to a helicopter, officials said they paid closer attention to its proprotor gearbox, instituted new limitations on how it can be flown and added maintenance inspections and requirements that gave them confidence that I could fly. safely return to the flight.
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The entire fleet was grounded on Dec. 6, just a week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died when their CV-22B Osprey crashed off the island of Yakushima.
Aviation Petty Officer 2nd Class Nicholas Hawkins directs an MV-22 Osprey to land on the flight deck of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea May 17, 2019. The Osprey, a vital aircraft for the U.S. military missions, has been approved to fly again after an “unprecedented” part failure led to the deaths of eight service members in a crash in Japan in November, the Naval Air Systems Command announced Friday. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Amber Smalley/U.S. Navy via AP, File)
Officials who briefed reporters Wednesday before the lifting of flight restrictions said they quickly grounded the entire fleet in December because it became clear that the way the Osprey part failed in that crash was something they had not seen. before in the tiltrotor aircraft.
While officials did not identify the specific component, because the Air Force's accident investigation is not yet complete, they said they now have a better, though not complete, understanding of why it failed.
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“This is the first time we've seen this particular component fail in this way. And this is unprecedented,” said Marine Corps Col. Brian Taylor, V-22 joint program manager at Naval Air Systems Command, or NAVAIR, which is responsible for the service-wide V-22 program.
However, the Defense Department's decision to return to flight before separate congressional investigations into the Osprey program are completed drew criticism from the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
“The Department of Defense is lifting the grounding order on the Osprey despite failing to provide answers to the Oversight Committee and the American people about the safety of this aircraft,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. “Serious concerns remain, including the accountability measures put in place to prevent accidents, a general lack of transparency, how maintenance and operational upkeep are prioritized, and how the Department of Defense assesses risks.”
A former Osprey pilot familiar with the investigation confirmed that the component in question is part of the proprotor gearbox, a critical system that includes gears and clutches that connect the Osprey's engine to the rotor to spin it.
The services have done a “deep dive” into the proprotor gearbox, and the new safety measures “will address the issues we saw in that catastrophic event,” the head of Air Force Special Operations Command said Wednesday. Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind. .
“I'm confident that we now know enough to fly again,” he said.
The proprotor gearbox system as a whole is a recurring problem for the Osprey. Service safety data obtained by The Associated Press shows dozens of cases among Marine Corps and Air Force Ospreys in which power surges, sudden losses of oil pressure due to leaks, engine fires or splintering, when the metal components inside the gearbox shed sometimes dangerous metals. chips: have damaged the proprotor gearbox in flight, sometimes requiring emergency landings.
Other proprotor gearbox components, including the damper clutch and input boom assembly, have been factors in previous crashes, and services have made changes such as replacing those parts more frequently.
The services also carefully examine what material the defective part is made of and how it is manufactured, Bauernfeind said. NAVAIR is also conducting more testing to give the services more information about why the component failed.
“It was a single component that failed in such a way that it had catastrophic consequences,” Bauernfeind said.
After testing is complete, he said, some of the operational safety controls now placed on the Osprey may be reduced “to give us greater flexibility with the platform.”
The investigation, known as an accident investigation board, will be made public and is expected to conclude within the next two months.
NBC News first reported the proprotor gearbox failure.
Japan's government has also been briefed on the findings and the military's plan to address the problem, officials said. Japan also grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the crash.
The crews have not flown for more than 90 days, a factor that will make their return to flight more dangerous. The services said Wednesday they are taking a cautious approach that could take 30 days to several months to retrain their crews before their Osprey squadrons return to normal operations.
The Osprey has been in development for four decades, but did not become operational until 2007. The US military has flown the Osprey about 750,000 hours and has relied on its ability to fly long distances quickly as an airplane and then convert it into a helicopter to perform operations in the Middle East and Africa, where some Marine squadrons received an exemption from the flight ban because they were so critical to the mission.
In future needs to counter China, the military has planned to use the Osprey in the Indo-Pacific to operate on islands that lack the airfields needed for traditional aircraft.
But it has also been a controversial first-generation design of military tiltrotor technology that has seen more than 14 serious accidents that have killed 59 people and in some cases resulted in the loss of the aircraft, which cost between $70 and $90 million. , depending on the variant.
Neither service plans to place new production orders for the V-22, which is produced by a joint venture between Bell Flight and Boeing. The Army has contracted Bell Flight to purchase the successor to the Osprey, the Bell V-280 Valor, which is a tiltrotor like the Osprey but smaller and with a major design change: the engines remain in a fixed horizontal position. On the Osprey, the rotors and the entire nacelle that houses the proprotor engine and gearbox tilt to a vertical position when flying in helicopter mode.
The Marine Corps operates the vast majority of Ospreys, with more than 240 currently assigned to its 17 squadrons. Its aviation mission depends on the aircraft returning to flight, and the Marine Corps is committed to keeping the Osprey in its fleet into the 2050s, said Marine Corps deputy assistant commandant for aviation Brig. General Richard Joyce.
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“We can't help but look at the V-22 and the years of service life ahead of it,” Joyce said.
However, the Air Force, which has the second-largest number of Ospreys in the fleet, with about 50 assigned to its special operations mission, suggested Wednesday that it may begin considering other options.
Early concepts for the Osprey date back to the 1980s, when the Iran hostage crisis exposed the need for an airframe that could move quickly and hover or land like a helicopter, Bauernfeind said.
And it fills that need quite well, but it's still an older platform, he said. “I think it's time we start talking about what's the next generation of capability that can replace what the V-22 does.”
