Accidents and incidents involving the V-22 Osprey
The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American military tiltrotor aircraft whose history of accidents have provoked concerns about its safety.
On 11 June 1991, a miswired flight control system led to two minor injuries when the left nacelle struck the ground while the aircraft was hovering 15 feet (4.6 m) in the air, causing it to bounce and catch fire at the New Castle County Airport in Delaware.
[1][5][6] The pilot, Grady Wilson, suspected that he may have accidentally set the throttle lever the opposite direction to that intended, exacerbating the crash if not causing it.
[7] On 20 July 1992, pre-production V-22 #4's right engine failed and caused the aircraft to drop into the Potomac River by Marine Corps Base Quantico with an audience of Department of Defense and industry officials.
[13] A V-22 loaded with Marines, to simulate a rescue, attempted to land at Marana Northwest Regional Airport in Arizona on 8 April 2000.
It descended faster than normal (over 2,000 ft/min or 10 m/s) from an unusually high altitude with a forward speed of under 45 miles per hour (39 kn; 72 km/h) when it suddenly stalled its right rotor at 245 feet (75 m), rolled over, crashed, and exploded, killing all 19 on board.
[14][15] The cause was determined to be vortex ring state (VRS), a fundamental limitation on vertical descent which is common to helicopters.
[1] On 11 December 2000, a V-22 had a flight control error and crashed near Jacksonville, North Carolina at Marine Corps Air Station New River, killing all four aboard.
[1][17][18] A MV-22B experienced an uncommanded engine acceleration while turning on the ground at Marine Corps Air Station New River, NC.
The investigation found several factors that significantly contributed to the crash: these include low visibility, a poorly-executed approach, loss of situational awareness, and a high descent rate.
Gen. Donald Harvel, board president of the first investigation into the crash, fingered the "unidentified contrails" during the last 17 seconds of flight as indications of engine troubles.
[42] An MV-22B Osprey participating in a training exercise at Bellows Air Force Station, Oahu, Hawaii, sustained a hard landing which killed two Marines and injured 20.
[46][47] On 13 December 2016 at 10:00 p.m., an MV-22B crashed while landing onto a reef in shallow water 0.6 miles (0.97 km) off the Okinawa coastline of Camp Schwab where the aircraft broke apart.
[52] On 18 December, after a review of MV-22B safety procedures, the III Marine Expeditionary Force (IIIMEF) announced that it would resume flight operations, concluding that they were confident that the mishap was due "solely to the aircraft's rotor blades coming into contact with the refueling line.
[63] An MV-22B Osprey participating in NATO exercise Cold Response crashed in Gråtådalen, a valley in Beiarn Municipality, Norway on 18 March 2022, killing all four Marines onboard.
[67] Investigators concluded that the causal factor of the crash was pilot error due to low altitude steep bank angle maneuvers exceeding the aircraft's normal operating envelope.
The accident occurred while the aircraft was participating in "Predators Run 2023", a joint military exercise involving 2,500 personnel from Australia, the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste.
[76] The aircraft was carrying 23 U.S. Marines,[77] of whom three were killed at the crash scene on the large island in the Timor Sea, 60 km north of Darwin, while another five were flown to a hospital in critical condition.
[76] A CV-22B Osprey assigned to the US Air Force's 353rd Special Operations Wing crashed into the East China Sea about one kilometer (0.6 mile) off Yakushima Island, Japan, on 29 November 2023, killing all eight airmen aboard.
[84] In early March 2024 the US and Japan resumed flights of the V-22 with revised maintenance and pilot training focuses but no changes to the aircraft.
[87] A V-22 experienced compressor stalls in its right engine in the middle of its first transatlantic flight to the United Kingdom for the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough Airshow on 11 July 2006.
[90] An MV-22 Osprey of VMMT-204 caught on fire during a training mission and was forced to make an emergency landing at Camp Lejeune on 6 November 2007.
The aircraft splashed down in the Arabian Sea and was briefly partially submerged four feet (one metre) before the pilots regained control and landed on the carrier deck.
[96] On 29 January 2017, an MV-22 experienced a hard landing during the Yakla raid in Al Bayda, Yemen against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants, causing two injuries to U.S. troops.
