MarineCorpTimes Jul 20, 202
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(In reponse to the emergence of a video of the fatal crash of a USMC MV-22 on USS Green Bay on Aug 5, 2017)
Marine Maj. Jorge Hernandez, spokesman for Marine aviation, wrote in an email response to Marine Corps Times.
Hernandez wrote that the entire Marine aviation community continues to refine all elements of MV-22 operations and use, “specifically applying lessons learned from previous mishaps.”
Several media outlets have noted the history of the Osprey and fatal crashes and nonfatal mishaps. Since initial flights in 1989 with prototype aircraft, at least 51 military members have died in connection with mishaps or crashes involving the Osprey.
Hernandez provided larger context regarding data on Marine aviation, noting that only in the past decade the aircraft has flown more than 420,000 flight hours, more than half of that in the past five years.
“The 10-year average mishap rate for MV-22′s is 3.16 per 100,000 flight hours,” Hernandez wrote on July 8.
For comparison, that rate is lower than the AV-8 Harrier jet, variants of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the F-35B fighter jet and the CH-53E Super Stallion. The 3.16 Osprey mishap rate is near the total Marine aviation platform average of 3.1 per 100,000 flight hours, the major wrote.
The Osprey aircraft, Hernandez wrote, flies nearly double the hours of the Corps’ other rotary wing platforms. The major called the aircraft the “workhorse” of the service’s assault support community, with capabilities far exceeding the CH-46, which it has supplanted for most missions.