The U.S. Air Force has recovered the black box from the CV-22B Osprey crash off the coast of Japan in November that claimed the lives of eight airmen.
Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse, a spokeswoman for Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), told Military.com that the black box “will be transported to laboratories for data retrieval” and that officials “expect the analysis process to take several weeks.”
“The vast majority of the aircraft was recovered” by the Navy’s USNS Salvor and has been taken to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan for further examination, she said.
Officials confirmed that eight people were on board the Air Force CV-22B Osprey, which was assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing and was conducting a “routine training mission” at the time that it crashed into the sea.
The aircraft departed Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, in Yamaguchi prefecture, but shortly after takeoff, the Coast Guard received an emergency call, with the crew of the Osprey requesting an emergency landing at the Yakushima airport.
However, the aircraft then disappeared from radar, which launched exhaustive search-and-rescue efforts for nearly a week.
All eight on board were subsequently confirmed dead, although Air Force officials have been able to recover the remains of only seven of the airmen.
They’ve been identified as Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, 24, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Maj. Jeffrey T. Hoernemann, 32, of Andover, Minnesota; Maj. Luke A. Unrath, 34, of Riverside, California; Capt. Terrell K. Brayman, 32, of Pittsford, New York; Tech. Sgt. Zachary E. Lavoy, 33, of Oviedo, Florida; Staff Sgt. Jake M. Turnage, 25, of Kennesaw, Georgia; and Senior Airman Brian K. Johnson, 32, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
Crash Investigation Ongoing
Search efforts are still ongoing for the remains of a missing servicemember, Maj. Eric Spendlove, 36, of St. George, Utah.The incident resulted in the grounding of all Osprey aircraft not engaged in emergency recovery operations, pending a probe into the safety of the aircraft.
The grounding of the Osprey aircraft used by the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy remains in place.
An investigation into the crash in Japan is still ongoing. However, officials said last month that preliminary information indicates that a “potential materiel failure” caused the accident, although they stressed that the “underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time.”
“While the mishap remains under investigation, we are implementing additional risk mitigation controls to ensure the safety of our service members,” the Navy stated.
The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands in a similar manner to a helicopter. However, it can also rotate its propellers mid-flight to cruise faster and more like a regular aircraft.
While its ability to change the way in which it flies provides the Osprey with a great advantage and makes it extremely useful for an array of missions and operations, since its first flight in 1992, the Osprey has also faced a number of mechanical and operational issues and has been involved in multiple accidents in the past, including in Japan, where they’re deployed at U.S. and Japanese military bases.
Since 1992, there have been more than a dozen Osprey crashes that have killed more than 50 servicemembers.
