Crash due to weather?
US military plane disappears during NATO exercise
03/19/2022 02:49 am
NATO holds the “Cold Response” exercise in Norway every two years. After training, the US military reports an Osprey plane with four crew members missing – and suspects that bad weather could have led to an accident.
A US military plane with four crew members has been reported missing during NATO Cold Response maneuvers in Norway. Local rescue workers said the Osprey military aircraft disappeared south of Bodö at 18:26 CET. Bad weather conditions prevailed in the area at that time.
At 9.17 p.m. the scene of the accident was discovered from the air. However, due to the bad weather, a landing was not possible. Rescue workers are on their way there. “We are not at the scene of the accident itself, so we don’t know anything about the four people on board. But we do know that it is a crash site,” rescue service spokesman Jan Eskil Severinsen told NRK television.
The US Army has confirmed an “incident” involving a US Marine Osprey aircraft during “an exercise in Norway as part of maneuver Cold Response 22”. The cause of the accident is under investigation, a spokesman said.
30,000 soldiers take part in maneuvers
According to the military alliance, around 30,000 soldiers, 200 aircraft and 50 ships from 27 nations, including Sweden and Finland, which are not part of NATO, have been taking part in the “Cold Response” maneuver since Monday. The defense of Norway under difficult climatic conditions is to be tested on the water, in the air and on land.
NATO usually holds the “Cold Response” exercise every two years. The maneuver, which lasts until April 1 and takes place just a few hundred kilometers from the Russian border, was therefore scheduled well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to NATO, Moscow was informed in detail and invited to send observers, but declined.