WASHINGTON – An Osprey accident in Australia that killed three marines last August was caused by multiple pilot errors during a near-air collision, a military investigation found. It also found that squadron leadership enabled “a culture that disregarded flight safety.”
Two Marines were killed in the Aug. 27 crash, pilots Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29, and Maj. Tobin J. Lewis, 37. A third Marine, crew chief Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, 21, was killed when he “heroically re-entered the aircraft’s burning cockpit in an attempt to rescue the trapped pilots,” investigators said in a report released Friday.
The accident was one of four fatal accidents over the past two years that have drawn renewed congressional scrutiny over the V-22 Osprey, which is capable of flying both as an airplane and as a helicopter. The Osprey has been a vital asset in special operations and combat missions, but it is considered one of the most complex aircraft to fly and maintain, and has a troubled history of accidents. The Osprey is now subject to a series of analyzes to see if it is suitable for military advancement.
The accident in Australia exposed significant safety issues within the squadron. Investigators recommended punitive action, including possible court-martial charges for a senior member of the squad and possible administrative action against the squad’s former commander, Lt. Col. Joe Whitefield, who they said “enabled a culture that disregarded the safety of flight procedures.”
A senior maintenance officer, who was not named, was found to be in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for dereliction of duty and for falsely generating and signing a form detailing the aircraft’s weight and loads after the accident. Lewis, the aircraft commander of the downed Osprey, was required to review this information before the flight. Investigators recommended that the maintenance officer face administrative or judicial proceedings.
Given the severity of the safety violations, investigators also recommended that all Marine Corps Osprey squadrons schedule a temporary pause in flight operations, known as a standdown, to review this accident.
It is the second recent Marine Corps Osprey accident in which critical flight data and voice data were lost because the recorder was destroyed by post-accident fire. After a 2022 Osprey crash in California that killed five Marines, investigators recommended that all Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey flight data recorders be replaced with a version that was resistant to high temperatures and fire. and survive an accident. An inquiry to the Marine Corps about whether these replacements were being made was not immediately returned.
The Hawaii-based squadron was experiencing a rapid pace of operations on its overseas deployment to Australia and may have been overwhelmed. In the three weeks before the fatal crash, the squadron suffered two minor accidents, including one that was another near-miss that was also linked to weight and cargo issues, which should have been a warning sign, investigators found.
The fact that the two previous accidents did not prompt Whitefield, the former commander, to conduct a grounding to look into larger safety concerns “is seriously concerning and directly contributed to the failure to execute flight and weight and power safety procedures required” on August 2017. 27, investigators found.
On the day of the accident, Lewis was responsible for simultaneously serving as flight instructor for the pilot flying the lead aircraft and also as aircraft commander in his own Osprey during a complex, multinational exercise. But investigators found that Lewis failed to attend mission planning briefings detailing the flight and did not review the aircraft’s loads, maintenance history or risk assessment before takeoff, leaving him with no knowledge of the flight, investigators found.
Investigators found that both Ospreys consumed 2,000 pounds more fuel than planned and only used estimates of how much each of the troops in the back would weigh. An aircraft’s weight plays a critical role in how safely pilots can operate it.
The Osprey that crashed also had incomplete maintenance, but none of the squadron leaders prevented the aircraft from taking off. Although outstanding maintenance tasks were not identified as factors in the accident, “ultimately, the aircraft should not have been certified safe for flight,” investigators found.
A fourth crew member was seriously injured in the accident, which occurred as the two Ospreys were flying low on a final landing approach during the multinational training exercise.
In the final minutes of the flight, the lead Osprey reduced power without informing the trailing Osprey, and the trailing Osprey did not feel the distance between the two aircraft quickly shrink in time, investigators found. The trailing Osprey reacted with a steep bank to avoid a mid-air collision, then quickly entered two additional steep banks that placed the aircraft in a position where it was subject to a 20-knot tailwind.
The aircraft commander did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation and took flight controls until it was too late, and by then the trailing Osprey did not have its tilted rotors or power settings in a position to handle maneuvers with the weight of the aircraft. aircraft. . It quickly stagnated, became unrecoverable and fell on its nose.
There were a total of 23 Marines on board the crashed aircraft. The 19 soldiers in the rear, who were being transported to a disembarkation point for the military exercise, survived.
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