WASHINGTON — Three Massachusetts lawmakers are urging Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to again ground the V-22 Osprey aircraft until the military fixes the root causes of several recent accidents, including a fatal crash in Japan.
In a letter sent to Austin on Thursday, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Representative Richard Neal called the decision to return Ospreys to limited flight status “misled.”
In March, Naval Air Systems Command said the aircraft had been cleared to return to limited flight operations, but only with strict restrictions that currently prevent it from performing some of the carrier, amphibious transport and special operations missions it was purchased for. The Pentagon’s joint Osprey program office has said those restrictions are likely to remain in place until mid-2025.
The ospreys were based military-wide for three months after a horrific crash in Japan in November that killed eight Air Force Special Operations Command servicemen.
There is no other aircraft like the Osprey in the fleet. It is loved by pilots for its ability to fly quickly to a target like an airplane and land like a helicopter. But the Osprey is aging faster than expected, and parts are failing in unexpected ways. Unlike other aircraft, its engines and propulsion blades rotate to a fully vertical position when operating in helicopter mode, a conversion that puts extra stress on those critical propulsion components. The crash in Japan was the fourth fatal accident in two years, killing a total of 20 service members.
Marine Corps Capt. Ross Reynolds, who died in a 2022 crash in Norway, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, who died in the November crash in Japan, were from Massachusetts, the lawmakers said.
“The Department of Defense should make the safety of service members a top priority,” the lawmakers said. “That means grounding the V-22 until the root cause of the aircraft’s many accidents is identified and permanent solutions are found.”
The lawmakers’ letter, which came with a long list of safety questions about the plane, is one of several formal inquiries into the V-22 program. There are multiple ongoing congressional investigations and internal reviews of the program by the Naval Air Systems Command and the Air Force.
The Pentagon did not confirm Friday whether it had received the letter.