Pentagon lifts pause on troubled Osprey aircrafts

Source: Yahoo! News/NBC News

Fri, December 20, 2024 at 8:13 PM EST


The Pentagon is allowing its fleet of V-22 Ospreys to return to the air — with some new guidelines in place — after temporarily pausing flights on the troubled aircrafts last month following an incident in New Mexico. The unique aircrafts, which can rise vertically like a helicopter and fly horizontally like a plane, have crashed four times since 2022, resulting in the deaths of 20 service members.

The latest incident took place on Nov. 20, when an Air Force Osprey made a precautionary landing in New Mexico after pilots got warnings indicating they needed to land immediately. No airmen were injured and the aircraft wasn't damaged, according to a spokesperson for the Air Force Special Operations Command.

But the Pentagon put a temporary pause on Osprey training flights out of what it described as an abundance of caution. Investigators determined there was a “materiel failure that had not been seen before leading to the recommendation for an operational pause,” according to the Air Force Special Operations Command spokesperson.

Naval Air Systems Command, which runs the Osprey program for the military, said in a Friday statement that it was lifting the pause with a new directive focused on a crucial component of the aircraft — the prop rotor gearbox.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-lifts-pause-troubled-osprey-011351240.html