JetSpeed comments

The Boeing 777-300 blew the mill, an old 747 was brought in to rescue the pax.

Bunch of damn drunks.

If anyone would care to actually review factual statistic data it is clear that the MV-22 has the lowest loss (crash) rate of any rotor-craft in the Marine Corp over the past 11 years, the aircraft loss rate is fewer than 1 loss per 16,000 flight hours, the H-1's H-46's and H-53's drop like flies in comparison but have been in service so long that it has become a non-issue. The Japanese are grasping at straws in an effort to reduce U.S military presence, if it wasn't the V-22's safety record it would be the noise or the crime that young Marines will commit. The fact that the V-22 is not offered in a civilian version is irrelevant, most military airframes share this trait, many other military transport types aircraft such as the CH-53, H-2, C-5, C-141, C-17, S-3, C-2, and etc have never been offered in a civilian form, mainly due to the fact that the mission they are designed for does not fill a civilian need and that they are cost prohibitive to purchase. The dozen Osprey's are riding a ship to Japan due to costs and available resources, the birds max ferry range is several hundred miles short of being able to make Hawaii from the mainland, the trip would require at least four KC-130J tankers (and crew) to provide in-flight refueling, this would not be at all practical unless the MV-22's were needed in Japan ASAP.

Poor choice of words since Japan's Landmark Tower (in Yokohama) opened on July 16th 1993.

Doubtful that Grumman (Northrop) has had their hands on that aircraft since it was built many years ago, likely one of the VAQ-136 maintainers either didn't get the panels(s) buttoned down properly or something failed.

The bearing in question is the secondary shaft bearing in the transmission, Honda claims that the bearing can fail "if a driver rapidly and/or aggressive moves the gear selector between REVERSE, NEUTRAL and DRIVE as some would do to free a stuck vehicle and others who may drive aggressively", they also claim "this can cause the engine to stall."

The updated software will introduce a slight delay and reduce the engines power output to ease the transition between these gears, it will have no effect on the drive-ability of the vehicles otherwise as you travel down the road.

My take is that Honda has had a string of warranty claims on transmissions damaged from this type of abuse and in an effort to reduce further claims (and expense) they have come up with this updated torque management software. To make certain that as many vehicles receive this new update as possible Honda has introduced it as a "Voluntary Recall" in the name of safety, when in all actuality it is most likely a preemptive cost saving measure (in the end) for Honda.