The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will investigate the safety history of the U.S. military’s V-22 Osprey fleet in response to a deadly crash off the coast of Japan that killed eight special operations airmen. This probe was confirmed by A. Nicole Clowers, GAO’s managing director for congressional relations, following a request from House Armed Services Committee members Reps. Mike Waltz and John Garamendi. The representatives urged the watchdog to examine trends in the Osprey’s accidents over the past thirty years, as well as maintenance, supply issues, and risk management across the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.
The November 29 crash of a Japan-based Air Force CV-22 is part of a series of fatal incidents involving the Osprey, claiming twenty U.S. troops’ lives since March 2022. The Air Force attributes the recent crash to an aircraft malfunction rather than crew error, leading to the indefinite grounding of the entire V-22 Osprey fleet. The incident has also prompted an independent investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability into the Osprey program.
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