Lack of egress training led to fatalities in Osprey crash

On August 5, 2017 an MV-22 carrying 21 passengers crashed while attempting to land on the USS Green Bay, near Queensland, Australia. As a result of the crash, three Marines were killed. The most likely cause of the accident was recirculated downwash air reflecting off the hull, into the rotors.

The pilots noticed a 200-300 foot per minute descent rate, and attempted to arrest it by increasing power, but the aircraft struck a catwalk just below the flight deck, slid across with the rotors hitting the flight deck, before striking a staircase and flipping into the water. Divers later found one of the missing Marines still strapped into his seat.

After hitting the water, the Marines on board needed help removing restraints, had to push cargo around, and move 8 Marines that had been unrestrained. Of the 21 Marines, 20 were with Golf Battery, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. They were in the "infrequent fliers" category, and as a result 7 of them had received no egress training (Helicopter Aircrew Breathing Device, and Shallow Water Egress Training). Two of the Marines on board had received the training and failed the course. All told, 384 Marines with the 3/5 had not received the training. The Marines said “Lack of training resources, competing training requirements, rapid embarkation upon arrival in Okinawa, Japan, and lost training days due to a contract expansion,” were the reason for the lack of training.

Accident article

I can believe the lack of training part. I was so pissed of with the AF when i left. They had money to waste on annual hangar dor trainingy but rare was the day we could shut down to catch up on DD's and regular maintenance. I talk with the crew chiefs on the mildenhall ospreys and every day is a 12 hour day because of maintenance. Bad vibrations during transition especially in high winds causes a lot if airframe cracks.
I always thought that thing was a useless death trap compared to a Chinook.

That sounds like a wing safety report....you in Wing Safety?



a reply to: Zaphod58

a reply to: lakenheath24

If I were, I wouldn't last there long.

Wanna bet that they were ALL currant with their Diversity and Sexual Harassment training?

The training isn't difficult. I was the trainer for our squadron. Ideally it should be done in a dunker in a pool, but, much of it can be practiced on an aircraft in a hangar. Somebody's just making excuses and covering their a$$.

a reply to: JIMC5499

I don't do sucker bets. One of the jokes about the coming safety day is that they will get their green dot and harassment training done.

So we one time did an actual water evacuation drill in a tank, and I have to tell you, most planes will sink quickly, it still took a lot of effort to get out of the sinking aircraft and that was with ZERO associated trauma from the initial impact. In otherwords we were 100% okay physically and it was rough. Training helps but

In our EC-145 and I assume that the military specs are similar the seat will absorb about 35 G's the rest goes to your body and thats based on alot of assumptions so figure 200 feet max is survivable. You wont walk away and you probably have special parking for what left of your life

I'm also skeptical simply for the following reason I am skeptical of the rosy picture painted for the F-35. The military brass and contractors have lied, lied then lied about the lies regarding issues. Its way way to easy to blame it on pilot error when you billion dollar baby is threatened and lets face it the USMC HAD to have this

a reply to: FredT

The Osprey has had known issues with rotor wash for years. They're not the easiest to land on deck when you're talking an LHA/LHD. The Green Bay is a San Antonio, with a much smaller deck.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Irealize that rotary wing is not exactly safe in terms of crashes but if we ever transitioned to a tiltrotor Im done and will gladly return to the bedside

a reply to: FredT

Having that big rotor, out where it is creates a lot more wash that tends to bounce back into the bottom of the rotor when they're coming down. If you're not careful, or expecting it, it creates lots of issues.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: FredT

Having that big rotor, out where it is creates a lot more wash that tends to bounce back into the bottom of the rotor when they're coming down. If you're not careful, or expecting it, it creates lots of issues.

Yeah true and to be honest I'm not buying that its less prone to vortex ring state than a conventional rotor wing.

Coupled with a mission, that is amphibious assault, which is more or less DOA

a reply to: FredT

It's not. It's actually fairly susceptible to asymmetric VRS if they descend too fast.

But the important thing here Zaph is that there are no bad trends, training is tip top and no mistakes were made by the senior leadership. It was obviously all the crews fault.

a reply to: thebozeian

Actually they scapegoated the Osprey unit commander. He was fired in February.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Fair enough but you get the point, crew, unit commander same systemic problem. Toxic leadership with no will other than to feather their nest and cover their own asses. Now where did I leave that cloning machine and Curtis LeMay's DNA?.....

a reply to: thebozeian

That's why I deliberately used the word scapegoated. It's Seventh Fleet on a smaller scale.