The Pentagon is suspending flights of the V-22 Osprey after an investigation found weakening of the plane's metal parts likely contributed to last month's near crash, and the disputed aircraft Added further difficulties to the
Vice Adm. Carl Chebbi, head of Naval Air Systems Command, recommended last week that the Osprey be temporarily grounded “out of an abundance of caution,” command spokeswoman Marcia Hart said. Chebi's unit runs the military's Osprey program.
The Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force each said in a statement that they are following the recommended suspension. The Marine Corps said the outage began Friday and will last at least through Monday. It is expected that the suspension will be extended at other branches as the cause of the metal damage is investigated.
Safety problems have plagued the Osprey program for the past five years, an investigation has found. Associated Press. Aircraft parts are wearing out faster than expected, and even its design (a combination of helicopters and double-sided airplanes that feature upright helicopter propellers at the wingtips) is responsible for many accidents. This is a contributing factor.
Following the Associated Press report, lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking him to redeploy the Osprey squadron until the identified safety and design issues are properly addressed or resolved. Ta.
In November, an Osprey nearly crashed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. It was eerily similar to the crash that killed eight Air Force Special Operations Command members off the coast of Japan nearly a year ago.
An ongoing investigation into the crash in Japan has found that a weak piece of metal used in the transmission's main gear caused the gear to collapse during flight, leading to the failure of the entire aircraft. The crew did not immediately try to land, as they did not understand how serious the failure was.
The degraded metal is called X-53 VIMVAR. Investigators found that the gear that failed had numerous inclusions, or microscopic weak points, in the metal due to foreign objects introduced during the manufacturing process.
Japanese accident investigators reported that the gear had cracked an astonishing seven times, likely caused by the same foreign object.
The New Mexico emergency crew had learned from the mistakes of the Japanese crash, and when the plane received a similar warning shortly after takeoff, they were able to land immediately. Although they lost their engines, the entire crew survived unharmed.
As with the Japanese crash, initial investigations found similar metal weaknesses causing failure in other parts of the aircraft.
AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Michael Conley suspended all Osprey training flights in accordance with NAVAIR's recommendations, “to give us time and space to understand what happened,” command spokeswoman Becky said.・Lt. Col. Heiss said in a statement.
The military and Bell Flight, the company that manufactures Osprey assembly and transmission systems at its Amarillo, Texas, factory, are working on ways to strengthen the metal in the future.
Since the first Osprey flew in 1989, crashes have killed 64 people and injured 93 others.
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