A U.S. military aircraft carrying six people crashed into the sea in western Japan on Wednesday, killing at least one crew member with the condition of at least two hauled from waters unclear.
Japan’s coast guard said it found what appeared to be wreckage from the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey
The crash happened about 2:47 p.m. local time (0547 GMT) near the island’s airport, with witnesses saying the aircraft’s left engine appeared to be on fire as it descended
The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial, with critics saying the hybrid aircraft is prone to accidents. The U.S. military and Japan say it is safe.
updated the post after about 7 hours. article originally said 8 people were onboard during the crash. now says 6 were onboard with at least 1 confirmed death.
Can someone make a “say the line” Simpsons meme but it starts with the “aircraft crashed” then bart says the line “V-22 Osprey”, then everyone cheers. I swear these only exist to crash.
Critical support to the fleet of ospreys’ protracted war against imperial troops.
My personal conspiracy theory is the osprey exists to cover up inconvenient casualties.
I think its just a stupid war criminals idea of a good idea and of course its not exactly the most feasible thing in the world to create. Especially if you’re holding the progression of humanity and are used to throwing away billions into the war machine.
Fair, one was because the pilot brought a gopro and flew low low low low
She hit the floor
That’s fair, at least one was because of a pilot pulling stunts for a GoPro
I know what you mean. Like the recent Blackhawk crashes off the coast of Cyprus killing Delta Force and SEAL team units? That started happening right after Oct 7th when Hamas fighters inside Gaza started reporting large men in US military cut uniforms with no unit patches speaking American accented English. Same uptick in JSOC members dying in training accidents started in the first few months of Russia-Ukraine.
Issuing news reports (and reasons given to families) that special forces like Delta, Seals, Green Berets, and Marine Recon died in helicopter training accidents is tradition going back to the Vietnam era when the White House was having to come up with excuses for what happened to all the special forces killed in Cambodia and Laos. Air Force used to do the same thing when stealth bomber crews were killed because stealth aircraft didn’t officially exist. Always confuses and upsets families who know something is off.
My spouse has(had) a cousin whose wife is pretty sure he died during counter insurgency operations in the Philippines and not in a training accident off the coast of Guam.
I used to play x-Plane which is a pretty realistic flight sim. Most planes are easy to fly, even airliners are very easy if a bit sluggish obviously.
The V-22 osprey has a slider lever to move the rotors from vertical to horizontal. They’re huge so the aircraft has to switch to vertical to land.
Touching that slider lever was a death wish. You had to really really fuck with the stick for the few seconds it took to transform, and it was incredibly easy to fling the whole aircraft into a forward tumble.
Absolutely insane aircraft