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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.U.S. Air Force identifies 8 crew lost in Osprey crash in Japan
By TARA COPP and MARI YAMAGUCHI WASHINGTON©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
19 Comments
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sakurasuki
Seeing what happened in the past accidents of that aircraft beside the one on November 29th, not sure if that one is the last one.
AgeOfAsparagas
Osprey wrecks must be insanely nasty. Those long, wide blades.
Spitfire
RIP.
A tragedy.
WA4TKG
R I P
quercetum
The Pentagon does not take requests, not especially from the Japanese.
OssanAmerica
"No such formal request has been made" means a request was not received. It does not mean that one was received and refused. Please go back to school.
Desert Tortoise
If the Japanese made the request to the US State Department rather than the DoD and the request stopped at the State Department, which is possible, the statement from the DoD might be entirely true.
Desert Tortoise
I will also add that many times I have read things in the open press including the supposedly professional defense press about programs I was working on that were wildly, outrageously, false. But you can't say anything one way or the other,
Fredrik
It is sad that these young people lost their lives. Let's just hope that there is no crash over central Tokyo, costing more precious lives. It is too late to save these 8 victims, but it is not too late to save the lives risked by future accidents. So Biden, stop the violating flights over Tokyo!
deanzaZZR
I'm surprised to read that half of the victims are officers. RIP
BertieWooster
One day, one of these deathtraps is going to go down over a populated area. One just flew overhead - just now!
Fighto!
Condolences to the families and loved ones of these 8 men who died serving their country and in their duty to protect Japan.
RIP. Fly high, airmen.
Yubaru
Be really nice to know just who, on the Japanese side, actually made the request, and to where.
I do not trust reporters in cases like this, as anyone could have made the comment, and it comes across as fact, when it could be fiction!
quercetum
Nah, maybe English is not your first language. It means a formal one was not received. You misread and took that as no requests were received per se, which may not be true.
Richard Burgan
The eight crew members lost in this crash are exceptionally qualified and trained. They are the best of the best. Being a member of a Special Operations Unit is a big deal, and they only select the best. There must have been a mechanical failure to cause this accident. Both Americans and Japanese should respect the crew members who lost their lives while protecting all of us.
Desert Tortoise
Very true. Among the dead are a flight surgeon, someone who must be both a medical doctor and a qualified pilot who is expected to maintain the same currency as any other pilot in the squadron, along with a CV-22 instructor and a flight leader. That is a big loss not just for their families but for the USAF.
stormcrow
Thank you for your brave service.
Rest In Peace
voiceofokinawa
The Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft is a highly computerized aircraft. Even so, I always wonder if the computer system built in it is always dependable and everlasting, judging from my old personal computers toward the end of their service life.
The introduction into a public road of unmanned vehicles, driver-less busses or cars, must be considered in this light, I reckon.
Desert Tortoise
Digital fly by wire technology has been flying for some 50 years now, first introduced on the F-16 but now common across all kinds of military and civil aircraft. The systems are typically quadruple redundant. Something like an F-16 is inherently unstable, meaning its center of mass is behind the aerodynamic center and would be impossible to control without the digital fly by wire system. The system responds faster than any human pilot can to keep the aircraft under control while the inherent instability allows the F-16 to change direction much faster than an aerodynamically stable design could. Digital fly by wire makes things like the B-2 possible to fly.
The computers on those aircraft are much higher quality than your home computer with rugged mil-spec components sealed in epoxy blocks connected with gold connectors and the software is updated continuously.