Three Marines Missing After Another Osprey Crash

UPDATE

Search called off for 3 U.S. Marines who crashed off Australia

"The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps suspended the rescue operation and launched a recovery effort instead, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement, essentially confirming the military does not expect to find the missing Marines alive."

3 US Marines missing after aircraft crashes off Australia

By ASSOCIATED PRESSPublished: August 5, 2017

SYDNEY — Search and rescue operations were underway for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia on Saturday while trying to land.

Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft have been rescued, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement.

The MV-22 Osprey involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water, the statement said. The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts.

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Boeing Faces Lawsuit After Osprey Crash in Hawaii

Marine's father vows lawsuit after fatal Hawaii Osprey crash 
Marine Corps Times 
By Jeff Schogol 
February 21, 2016

An MV-22 Osprey with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (Reinforced), 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, lifts off at Udairi Range in Kuwait, July 29, 2012, as part of a live-fire event. (Photo: Cpl. Michael Petersheim, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit )

The father of one of two Marines killed in an MV-22B Osprey crash last year in Hawaii said he plans to sue Boeing and the other companies that make the aircraft.

Mike Determan told Marine Corps Times that evidence shows the MV-22B is unsafe to fly because sand and dust can get sucked into its engines, causing the aircraft to crash. Military.com first reported about the pending lawsuit and that Determan wants the Marine Corps and Air Force versions of the Osprey to be grounded and eventually replaced by the Bell V-280 Valor.

His son, Lance Cpl. Matt Determan, was killed on May 17, 2015, when the Osprey he was flying in crashed while landing in low-visibility conditions. Lance Cpl. Joshua Barron was also killed.
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Hawaii Marine Osprey Crash Caught on Video

Billows of Dust, a Sudden 'Pop' and an Osprey Falls from the Sky 
Military.com 
Hope Hodge Seck 
January 29, 2016

A screen grab of a video showing the May 17, 2015, crash involving an MV-22 Osprey at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii. The accident claimed the lives of two Marines and injured 20 other troops on board. (Defense Department video)

The moments before landing are eerily calm.

Caught on shaky hand-held video, two MV-22B Ospreys appear over a ridge of hills. The first Osprey turns in toward a small landing zone near a chain link fence, its rotors facing skyward for a vertical descent. As it comes within meters of touchdown, a choking cloud of brown dust billows up from the ground, completely obscuring the aircraft from view. The dust cloud grows even larger and more expansive, and the Osprey appears once again, ascending briefly. It hovers for mere seconds above the brownout, and a tongue of flame appears to shoot from its left nacelle.

Then, its rotors still spinning, the aircraft simply drops out of the sky, crumpling on impact as the right rotor tears free and chews the dirt.

The circumstances of this May 17, 2015, crash, which claimed the lives of two Marines and injured the other 20 troops on board at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, are laid out through the accounts of eyewitnesses in a 2,200-page command investigation obtained by Military.com. The investigation recommends disciplinary or administrative action for the pilots and some aircrew of the aircraft and for Lt. Col. Andreas Lavato, the squadron commander for Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 161, to which the Osprey was attached, and Col. Vance Cryer, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which housed the squadron.
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