Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft operated by the US Marine Corps crashed in Northern Australia during an exercise on August 27, 2023.
No fatalities have been reported, although at least three American marines were injured, one of them in critical condition and two others, stable.
The aircraft was taking part in exercise Predator’s Run 2023 and was carrying 20 US marines at the time of the accident, which took place on or near Melville Island, off Darwin, Northern Australia.
Exercise Predator’s Run 2023 is a 12-day combined arms military exercise that focuses on littoral defense. It gathered some 750 troops from Australia, the US, the Philippines and other allied countries from the region.
The V-22 Osprey is a tilt-rotor military transport aircraft, which can take-off and land vertically while transitioning to cruise in horizontal flight, like a fixed winged aircraft.
The Osprey’s safety record has been the object of public controversy in the past, since during the its long testing and development phase, which extended from the early 1990s to 2007, the aircraft suffered a string of fatal accidents. Overall, and up until the this latest accident in Australia, there had been 13 incidents resulting in a total hull loss, with a total of 51 fatalities recorded.