Pentagon to lift ban on V-22 Osprey flights, 3 months after fatal crash in Japan
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will lift a ban on flights with the grounded V-22 Osprey next week, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Friday, following a high-level meeting where Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reviewed the military services’ plans for a endorsed a safe and measured return. to operations.
The officials said the Naval Air Systems Command, which grounded the controversial tilt-rotor aircraft about three months ago, will lift it and allow the services to carry out their plans to get the Osprey back in the air. Austin met Friday morning with top service leaders, including from the Navy and Air Force, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made public, according to officials.
The Osprey has been grounded for nearly three months after an Air Force Special Operations Command crash in Japan on Nov. 29 that killed eight service members. The Japan incident and an earlier Osprey crash in Australia, which killed three Marines, are both still under investigation. The Air Force has said it has determined what failed in the crash in Japan, although it does not yet know why it failed.
In the months since, the services have worked on plans to mitigate the known material failure by implementing additional safety checks and introducing a new, more conservative approach to the way the Osprey is operated.
Officials said the U.S. military will also share its plans with Japan, the only international partner involved in the Osprey program. Japan also grounded its fleet of 14 V-22s after the November crash. Prior to the grounding, the United States Marine Corps routinely used Ospreys in that province.
A return to flight is a sensitive topic in Japan, where public opinion about the Osprey is mixed. Officials said the U.S. is committed to a safe process, and the fleet will not fly there again until Japan has had an opportunity to be briefed on the services’ plan.
The head of the Naval Air Systems Command is expected to fly to Japan next week to personally brief the Defense Ministry and Japanese government on the plans, and no Ospreys will fly until that briefing takes place, according to another U.S. official who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Osprey is a military aircraft that can take off like a helicopter and fly like an airplane. A series of accidents in the past two years have raised questions about whether it is safe to fly.
The military grounding has had the greatest impact on the U.S. Marine Corps, which relies on more than 300 MV-22 Ospreys to carry out much of its aviation mission. Air Force Special Operations Command has approximately 50 CV-22B Ospreys. The Navy plans to replace the C-2 Greyhounds, which carry passengers to aircraft carriers, with more than two dozen CMV-22 Ospreys.
The presidential fleet also uses a limited number of Ospreys to transport White House staff, security personnel and reporters. These aircraft have also been grounded.