An investigation launched by the U.S. military has found that a Marine believed to have died in a tragic plane crash actually bailed out and then died while trying to return into the flames to rescue the trapped pilot.
Corporal Spencer Collert, 21, was aboard the MV-22B Osprey that crashed during a military exercise in Australia in August 2023.
An official Marine Corps investigation determined that Collert did not die in the initial crash, but rather while “heroically re-entering the burning aircraft’s cockpit in an attempt to rescue the trapped pilot.”
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Marine Corps Cpl. Spencer R. Kollart and his fellow Marines, Marine Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau (bottom left), and Marine Maj. Tobin J. Lewis (bottom right), are seen in a photo at his parents’ home in Arlington, Virginia. Kollart, 21, died along with two other Marines when the MV-22B Osprey aircraft they were riding in crashed during a training exercise on an island north of Australia on Aug. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)
A total of 23 military personnel were on board the Osprey when it crashed.
While the majority of the crew were able to escape through the rear of the plane, Captain Eleanor LeBeau, the pilot in command, Major Tobin Lewis, and Collert were killed in the tragic air accident.
The circumstances of Collert’s death are made more difficult to comprehend by the fact that one of the commanding officers who survived the crash testified that he saw Collert exit the wreckage through a side door.
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An MV-22B Osprey lands on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). (Dominic A. Clemens/USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7)/Smith Collection/Gadot/Getty Images)
The on-site team then recovered the young Marine’s flying tether at the disaster scene, mostly intact.
Military investigators believe that Collert escaped the wreckage, then ran back toward the flames and tried to free Lewis from the cockpit. Collert succumbed to the heat and smoke and died along with the two pilots.
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The family of Marine Corps Cpl. Spencer R. Kollart, from left, father Bert Kollart, sister Gwyneth Kollart and mother Alexia Kollart, pose for a photo with his portrait at their home in Arlington, Virginia. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)
Kollert will be posthumously awarded the Navy-Marine Corps Medal, the Navy’s highest non-combat award.
