Two Dead in Latest Crash of Marines’ Controversial Tiltrotor

By David Axe
April 12, 2012


A Marine V-22 during a recent exercise. Photo: Navy

A Marine Corps V-22 Osprey tiltrotor crashed during a training exercise in Morocco yesterday, killing two people aboard and injuring two others. The Marines have released only a few details so far, but it’s worth pointing out that the Boeing- and Bell-built V-22, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and
cruises like an airplane thanks to its rotating engines, has a long history of mechanical problems — and a safety record far worse than the military likes to admit.

The V-22 in question, assigned to Tiltrotor Squadron 261 based in North Carolina, was part of a training exercise codenamed African Lion involving aircraft, vehicles and 1,200 Marines from the assault ship USS Iwo Jima, plus 900 Moroccan troops. According to the Naval Safety Center, the Osprey was flying near the coastal city of Tan-Tan in southern Morocco when it went down at 3:55 p.m., local time.

There’s no mention in the Naval Safety Center’s initial report as to the potential causes of the accident. But the report does state that the V-22 was flying in “VFR” conditions. VFR, or Visual Flight Rules, meaning the weather was clear enough for the pilot to fly without his instruments. Based on that, we can probably rule out bad weather. That leaves pilot error and mechanical failure as possible causes.

Whatever its cause, the Morocco crash is the sixth fatal accident since 1992 for the combined force of around 200 Marine and Air Force V-22s. Five of those accidents involved crashed aircraft; in a sixth, last summer, a Marine crewman fell from his Osprey’s open ramp in mid-flight during a mission in Afghanistan. All told, V-22 accidents have claimed 40 lives.

Still, the Marines like to tout the V-22 as the safest tactical rotorcraft in their fleet. Leaving out four crashed prototypes and yesterday’s incident, the Marines claim the Osprey has a serious mishap rate of just 1.28 per 100,000 flight hours, compared to a serious mishap rate of 2.6 per 100,000 for the overall Marine air fleet.

But the official stats mask ongoing problems with the Osprey’s overly-complex engines that have caused several major fires and other incidents on the ground. The Marines insist those accidents shouldn’t count against the V-22′s air safety record, even if they cause millions of dollars in damage.

As V-22 production has ramped up over the years, Bell and Boeing have introduced some major changes to the $65-million aircraft, including more reliable hydraulics and better flight controls. But fundamental aspects of the tiltrotor’s design — its wingspan, rotor span, engine horsepower and the unique mechanisms for rotating the engines while in flight — lie at the heart of the V-22′s problems. And they can’t be changed.

In the latest sign of trouble, yesterday a V-22 was in the middle of a pre-delivery test flight near Bell’s factory in Amarillo, Texas, when an unspecified system malfunctioned, forcing the test crew to make an emergency landing in a field. As events in Morocco the same day proved, the Amarillo incident could have turned out much worse.

Marine Tiltrotor Crashes