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Three dead, 20 injured
VTOL crashes during military exercise in Australia
8/27/2023 8:46 am
A serious incident occurs during a military exercise in Australia. A US military machine crashes in the north of the country. There are more than 20 people on board.
A US military plane with more than 20 people believed to be on board has reportedly crashed on an island north of mainland Australia during an exercise. The V-22 Osprey machine crashed near the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory in the morning, according to the Australian news agency AAP and the broadcaster Sky News, citing the police and military. According to the BBC, three soldiers died in the accident and 20 were injured. The Care Flight rescue service said three passengers had been taken to a hospital in the city of Darwin.
The Australian Ministry of Defense said the plane had US “defense personnel” on board. The cause of the accident is still unclear. Soldiers from the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor are taking part in the Predators Run exercise.
The V-22 Osprey, built by Bell and Boeing, is a tiltrotor convertible aircraft. It combines the advantages of an airplane with those of a helicopter. The machine takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter using rotors and then flies like an airplane. The V-22 Osprey is primarily intended to rescue soldiers and civilians quickly and safely from danger zones.
The aircraft can reach speeds of over 600 kilometers per hour, twice as fast as the Vietnam-era CH-46 helicopter that the US armed forces replaced with the VTOL. The Osprey can also fly higher and stay aloft far longer than the old helicopters. The US military has suffered several crashes of this type. Most recently, in June 2022, four US Marines were killed in an accident involving an Osprey aircraft in Southern California.