The Pentagon is temporarily pausing flights again of its V-22 Osprey fleet after weakened metals in a part inside one of the aircraft broke apart in flight in November, causing an engine failure and a near crash in New Mexico, based on an initial investigation of the incident.
The pause was recommended last week by Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, the head of Naval Air Systems Command, and went into effect Monday morning, Navy spokesman Cmdr. Tim Hawkins said.
Both the Navy and Air Force are adhering to the voluntary operational pause, which is indefinite as the services look at how the safety issue can be mitigated. The Marine Corps did not immediately return a request for comment as to whether its aircraft would also adhere to the operational pause.
It's the latest problem for the military's embattled Osprey aircraft. An in-depth investigation into the Osprey by The Associated Press last month found that safety issues have increased in the past five years, parts are wearing out faster than expected and that the design of the aircraft itself is directly contributing to many of the accidents.
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Following that report, lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking him to reground the Osprey fleet until solutions can be put in place to address safety and design issues identified by the AP.
The Air Force Special Operations Command is "in close coordination with the V-22 Joint Program Office and aware of their operational pause recommendation. In concurrence with their recommendation, Lt. Gen Michael Conley, AFSOC commander, has directed a pause for all CV-22 flight training operations," Lt. Col. Becky Heyse, command spokeswoman, said in a statement.
"A pause in flight training operations allows time and space for us to understand what happened in the most recent event before we accept risk with unknown variables."
The Nov. 20 incident at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico had similarities to a crash off the coast of Japan in November of last year that killed eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members.
In the Japan crash, inclusions — or weakened spots — in the metal used for critical gears inside the Osprey's transmission failed, leading to the gears falling apart in flight and a cascading catastrophic failure of the aircraft. At the time the crew did not realize the seriousness of the failure and did not immediately land.
Lessons from that fatal Japan crash may have saved lives here. While the investigation is not complete, in the Cannon flight the crew received similar warnings shortly after takeoff and lost an engine but was able to quickly put the Osprey back on the ground and survive.
A subsequent review of the parts that broke apart has found that similar metal weaknesses may have played a role, but in a different part than what failed in the Japan crash.
Since the military started flying the aircraft three decades ago, 64 personnel have been killed and 93 injured in crashes. Japan's military briefly grounded its fleet again in October after an Osprey tilted violently during takeoff and struck the ground.