United States – The US Air Force Command said Tuesday it is clear what the trigger was on its CV-22B Osprey that caused a November accident in Japan claiming eight members of the military. Nevertheless, it is not able to tell why the failure happened.
The crash grounded Osprey aircraft numbering in hundreds that belong to the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy since the 06th of December. There are two investigations that are ongoing following the crash in Japan — a safety investigation board, which is a special internal privileged review and is done internally and in private and aims at briefing pilots and crews, and the accident investigation board, which is the official administrative review. Both are still ongoing, as reported by the Associated Press.
Investigative Progress
Additionally, Air Force Special Operations Command is conducting its own complete evaluation of the CV-22 Osprey program. However, while the command knows what has gone wrong, the details of those failures are yet to be disclosed.
“At this time, the material failure that occurred is known, but the cause of the failure has not been determined. Engineering testing and analysis are ongoing to understand the cause of the material failure, a critical part of the investigation. Any disclosure of findings prior to investigations being finalized is premature and presumptive,” Air Force Special Operations Command said in a statement released Tuesday.
Cautious Return to Service
In order to determine when Osprey operators may safely return to the sky, the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps have been coordinating their efforts. The Air Force stated that to bring its fleet of around fifty Ospreys back into service, “the priority is to inform our deliberate return to fly and ensure CV-22 aircrew and maintainers have the information they need to prevent future mishaps.” Each service would make its own decision on this, as reported by the Associated Press.
Material Failure Identified
In the late evening on Monday, NBC News reported that the wreck was related to chipping from the Osprey’s proprotor gearbox. When the teeth of the gears of the aircraft wear down a tiny little piece of metal chip, that can produce dangerous metal particles that can harm engines. A gearbox has been the subject of the investigation in some Osprey crashes, and some of the components are wearing out faster than expected. In January 2023, the Department of Defense awarded Bell-Boeing a $12.7 million grant to facilitate the gearbox design across all of the Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and Navy Osprey variants, as reported by the Associated Press.
Air Force Special Operations Command did not respond to a query about whether the gearbox chip caused the accident. Yet, this would also not be the first time an OSPREY crew from the Airforce Special Operations Command was previously linked to a chip issue.