Posted on 11/30/2023 7:19:37 AM PST by billorites
A U.S. Air Force CV-22B Osprey tiltrotor crashed yesterday (U.S. time) off the southern coast of Japan. One body has been recovered, and the remaining seven crew members were still missing as of 4 p.m. EST Wednesday (Nov. 29), according to the Japanese coast guard.
According to the USAF Special Operations Command statement, the Osprey was assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing at the Yokota Air Base. The tiltrotor departed along with a second Osprey from the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi and was bound for Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa. Six Ospreys were based at Yakota, including the accident aircraft. According to a U.S. military statement, the pilot “did everything possible until the last minute.”
According to local public television reports, a resident in Yakushima said he saw the aircraft inverted with one engine on fire, then an explosion before it hit the water’s surface. The crew requested an emergency landing at Yakushima’s airport just five minutes before radar contact was lost, according to multiple local news reports.
The Japanese coast guard reported it had recovered one male crew member who was later pronounced dead. The search also turned up debris from the aircraft and an empty life raft about a half-mile offshore from Yakushima. At press time the search remained ongoing.
(Excerpt) Read more at avweb.com ...
Japan’s air SDF has decided to stand down all of its Ospreys, and the Japanese government is asking the US to remove all of ours from their airspace. My guess is that we’ll move them out of Yokota AFB and leave them in Okinawa for deployment to Taiwan when necessary, but given the present USAF leadership who knows.
Compare V-22 original performance objectives to actual capabilities......
Stupid design for an aircraft in search of a mission. Outboard rotor lift/propulsion is popular in movies but does not translate well to reality. Scrap this thing and use the money on next gen WartHogs.
Not exactly an accurate statement.
The Osprey was designed to replace the CH46/47 as a Marine troop transport. The design requirements were similar hailing capacity, with roughly twice the air speed, but maintaining an ability to land and take off vertically where no air fields exist.
So it has a mission. And its (controversial) design is driven by that air speed requirement. A helicopter can never go faster than it can go with the advancing blade below the speed of sound. When you tilt the rotor now your forward speed can be greatly increased.
It was new tech at the time, and has as many cautions as advantages (like smaller auto-rotate window when transitioning from horizontal to vertical flight, and the deck multiple being very large as compared to helicopters), but it did in fact meet the mission objectives.
One also has to keep in mind that military aircraft are often flown at 'the limits' resulting in stress and high maintenance as compared to civilian aircraft.
I would wait for the accident report before blaming either the aircraft or the crew.
Prayers up for the families.
In the early 2000s I had the privilege of working on pilot and maintainer training for the USMC V-22. Back then the Marines had at least one fatal crash that I can remember caused by Vortex Ring State, which if I recall correctly can be cause by too fast a rate of descent in tilt rotor aircraft. The USMC hit the pause button on production for a time. This crash sounds like some kind of mechanical failure... RIP to the brave USAF crew aboard this one.
A lot of noise from haters of the V-22. However, I spent 4 years at Yokota AFB and Norton AFB working in communications, so I saw all the safety reports of helicopters in the Pacific theater. In that time, I recall that there were one or two crashes per year of Marine transport choppers traveling between Okinawa and the Japanese main islands.
Crashes happen. You won’t find me voluntarily flying on a helicopter or a tilt-rotor aircraft.
“Crashes happen. You won’t find me voluntarily flying on a helicopter or a tilt-rotor aircraft.”
SAME for me. & I learned to fly before I could drive a car. Father a pilot, uncle Navy pilot & instructor, 2 sons are pilots, one a Navy helo pilot.
Fixed wing only. Usually some chance of putting it down with most mechanical failures.......
Fixed wing? For sure.
The great explanation on YouTube illustrated the engine to rotor power path and there are many points where failure of the part depends on a transition to be powered by the remaining engine.
There are too many places where the possible failure means loss of controlled flight.
I never was comfortable in an aircraft where the “wings,” are beating above your head.
Also, no mention of the capability to autorotate, until the last part of the piece.
Did the Osprey have a “glide capability?” No mention, so, possibly not.
USAF? I thought these were marine planes.
Air Force has some as well, usually for SAR and SpecOps.
It sounds like they were moving it from one base to the other, from a Marine base with a Marine crew to a new home in an Air Force base. Some stories just call it a “US military” plane to avoid having to sort this out.
30 years in the Air Force and I just had my first helo ride 2 weeks ago at the Grand Canyon. Not a real fan.
Hater! I spent my first 16 years flying H-3’s and H-60’s in Air Force Combat Search and Rescue, then another 16 years flying Rescue HC-130’s. Helicopters and fixed-wing have their pros and cons. I had more mechanical problems in the 130 than I ever had in helicopters (but that doesn’t really mean anything-just survived by the Grace of God).
I’ve been torn over the V-22 since it was put into operation. Didn’t really fit in the SAR world-couldn’t rappel, hoist or fast-rope due to the engine exhaust until they moved it to the rear of the aircraft. Haven’t kept up with it since retiring, so I can’t speak to any of the issues.
Pray for the families and friends.
Don’t get me wrong, if I knew what to do with the collective it would be a blast! You, BTW, are a stud for playing in the CSAR world.
My son starts flying a desk soon and I for one am glad.
If he could have taken me up with him, I would have done it once figuring the odds were with us.
Twice? Probably not - though the odds aren’t much different.......
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