Marine General Rides in Osprey Aircraft to Allay Fears

CHINA LAKE NAVAL AIR WEAPONS STATION, Calif. â€”  Hoping to quell fears about the safety of the military aircraft that crashed earlier this spring, killing 19 Marines, Gen. James L. Jones on Saturday took the first MV-22 Osprey passenger flight since the deaths.

The Marine general flew in the Osprey as a gesture of confidence in the hybrid aircraft that hovers like a helicopter and flies like a plane. The expensive craft has been under heavy scrutiny since one crashed April 8 while trying to land at an airfield near Tucson.

After taking the hot, noisy 30-minute flight seated next to his wife, Diane, in the craft lined with olive green padding, Jones called the Osprey a wonderful aircraft that is ready to begin carrying passengers.

“If there was the slightest doubt, I mean the slightest doubt, we would not have done this today,� he said.

The general, two aerospace executives and the pilot chatted calmly over a radio during the flight, which carried 11 passengers and a crew of four. The aircraft reached a maximum speed of 200 knots after its engines tilted forward, rocking in the winds and leaving some reporters feeling queasy as furnace-like desert air blew in through an open rear hatch.

“We wouldn’t put the commandant or any Marine on an aircraft that was not sound,� said Capt. Aisha Bakkar-Poe, a spokeswoman who flew on a second Osprey that trailed the one carrying Jones.

On June 5, the Ospreys resumed operational evaluation flights to determine their readiness to join the Marine Corps’ active air fleet, but they have not been carrying passengers. Evaluation flights were halted while the crash was investigated.

The Marines announced last month that mechanical failure was ruled out as a cause of the crash, although the investigation is continuing. It was the deadliest air disaster for the Marines since 22 died in a helicopter crash in South Korea in 1989.

The Arizona accident appears to have been the result of the aircraft descending too rapidly and too steeply, Jones said, stopping short of citing pilot error as the cause. He said the result of the investigation will be available in 30 days.