Ospreys still "important" to U.S. military despite deadly crash (2024)

As two U.S. Marines remain unaccounted for following last week's deadly Osprey crash, the U.S. military is fielding criticism of its accident-prone people-carrying aircraft. But it's not going to set aside its helicopter-plane hybrid, despite the mishaps— and deaths—the aircraft is racking up.

Last week, a U.S. CV-22 Osprey crashed off the southern Japanese coast with eight people for a training mission close to Yakushima Island. Search crews quickly located one person traveling on the Osprey, who was confirmed dead.

On Monday, American and Japanese authorities carrying out search efforts found five more bodies from the crash, as well as "the main fuselage of the aircraft wreckage," the U.S. military said.

"Currently, two crew members of the five have been successfully recovered by the attending teams," Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told the media during a briefing on Monday. "There is an ongoing combined effort to recover the remaining crew members from the wreckage."

On Sunday, the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command identified one of the deceased crew members as 24-year-old Sergeant Jacob Galliher. He was part of an intelligence squadron based at Japan's Yokota Air Base, the military said.

Japan formally requested that the U.S. ground its Osprey fleet based in the country, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported shortly after the crash last week. Japan also suspended its own Osprey fleet.

Bloomberg reported that the request had been rejected but that it made no reference to its treaty partner's request. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara confirmed reports that the U.S. military was still operating its Ospreys, saying that Japan's regional defense bureau had counted 20 landings and takeoffs of Ospreys around U.S. bases by 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Asked for comment, Singh told Newsweek that "the safety of our service members and Japanese communities is a top priority for the United States."

"The United States is taking all appropriate safety measures, as we do for every flight and every operation," he continued.

"The unit of the CV-22 that had the accident is not conducting flight operations. All V22 Ospreys in Japan are operating only after undergoing thorough maintenance and safety checks," she added. "We have already started sharing information about the accident with our Japanese partners, and have pledged to continue to do so in a timely and transparent manner. We have good communications between our senior leaders and are in constant dialogue regarding aviation safety and other safety-related issues."

"The United States extends our sincere gratitude to the Japanese Coast Guard, Self-Defense forces, and local communities, including fishermen, for their search and rescue efforts," Singh said.

But the crash off the Japanese coast was the latest in a spate of often-lethal accidents in the U.S. military's fleet of hundreds of Ospreys.

In August, three U.S. Marines were killed after an MV-22B Osprey crashed with 23 people on board during a joint training operation in northern Australia, sparking a safety review.

Five U.S. Marines were killed in June 2022 when an MV-22B Osprey crashed during a training exercise close to Glamis, California. In March 2022, four American soldiers died when another MV-22B Marine Corps aircraft crashed in a remote region during a NATO training exercise in Norway.

In December 2016, an American Osprey crashed near the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. Five crew members were injured, and the U.S. temporarily grounded its Osprey fleet.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that can take off and land vertically in the same way as a helicopter. There are several variants of the Osprey, designed for supporting troops in combat as well as infiltration, exfiltration and resupply missions for special operations forces, according to the U.S. military.

The Osprey is "the first truly effective tiltrotor," and is, therefore, a "very complicated machine in which a lot of things can go wrong," according to Frederik Mertens, an analyst with the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies.

"A helicopter remains an aircraft that is kept aloft by sheer engine power against the grain of the laws of physics rather than gently cooperating with them," he told Newsweek. "If something goes wrong, it can go hideously wrong fast."

"The fact that these same helicopters are typically used to transport personnel can make these accidents quite deadly indeed," he said.

The Osprey has "a long history of mechanical failures," said Timothy Loranger, a Marine Corps veteran and attorney.

But the U.S. won't drop the aircraft anytime soon, experts suggest. "With every crash, questions come up about why Ospreys are still flying," Loranger said. "The answer is simple: It's a workhorse and is needed."

"The Osprey is worth the complexity and the risks," agreed Mertens, adding: "A tilt-rotor offers speed and range that no classic helicopter will be able to match."

This is crucial for U.S. special forces units operating "deep in the enemy hinterland," Mertens said, and for covering huge distances in the Pacific, for which it is ideally suited.

The Osprey is vital for couriering personnel and equipment in and out of difficult locations, and with more than 400 Ospreys at its disposal, the U.S. is unlikely to drop it anytime soon, Loranger told Newsweek.

The U.S. Marine Corps operates more than 270 Ospreys, and the Air Force Special Operations Command had 51 Ospreys at the start of the year.

There is no sign of the U.S. looking for another aircraft that could take the Osprey's place, Loranger commented.

Yet the U.S. military confirmed to Military.com earlier this year that it was not planning on purchasing any more Ospreys, but that it expected to fly the aircraft into the 2050s.

Update 12/06/2023 at 9:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a response from the Pentagon.