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Crew walk to the U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft at MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida in 2008.
The Air Force has fired the commander of a special operations squadron a week after a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in his unit crashed in Florida, NBC News confirmed on Thursday.
Lt. Col. Matt Glover, who commanded the 8th Special Operations Squadron based at Hurlburt Field in Florida, was relieved from his duties because of a loss of confidence, a military official told NBC News.
The Osprey, designed to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a twin turboprop airplane, crashed on a training mission north of Navarre, Fla., on June 13 in a 750-square mile military training area called the Elgin Range. Five crew members were hospitalized with injuries.
On Wednesday, two of the airmen injured in the crash remained in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the Air Force reported. Officials are investigating.
This crash, along with a fatal MV-22 crash in Morocco in April, have raised new safety concerns among Japanese leaders and citizens ahead of an expected deployment of MV-22 Ospreys to Japan, NBC News reported. The MV-22 is the Marine Corps' version of the same aircraft.
Two Marines were killed in that crash and two more were more seriously wounded. The investigation determined that the crash was not a result of mechanical failure.
In an attempt to assuage safety concerns, several senior U.S. military officials at the Pentagon on Friday will brief a Japanese delegation on the preliminary results of the investigation into the June crash, NBC News reported.
The CV-22 Osprey’s mission is to conduct long-range infiltration, extraction and resupply missions for special operations forces, according to the U.S. Air Force web site.
The Air Force version is filled with sophisticated technology, including a missile defense system, terrain-following radar, a forward-looking infrared sensor and other electronic gear that enable it to avoid detection and defend itself on special operations missions over enemy territory, the Associated Press reported.
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Leave a Comment:
Sorry Mr Lt. Col.
The crash was probably not your fault, but hey the nitwits in D.C. are pissed the multi-million dollar aircraft wrecked, so unfortunately your head has to roll and your military career is effectively over.
Thank you for your service.
This plane was an all round problem design from its inception, ungainly and unstable.
Vague article. "Loss of confidence" is usually code for poor leadership. The Lt Col wouldn't be relieved just because his plane crashed. There's a lot more to this story.
The Osprey is a major POS that was way late and over budget, due mainly to the fact that a lot of prototypes crashed and killed a lot of people. It is very difficult to fly and expensive and time-consuming to maintain. The concept has been tried in the past but never been a success, but the Military/Industrial Complex and Congress just kept dumping more good money after bad to try to make it work.
They should have stuck with their HH-53s, a proven platform with no problems, which could easily have been updated or replaced with a newer, up-dated version.
My Nephew joined the Marines a few years ago and is now a Lt.. I told him, "Go AWOL or whatever you have to do but never get near an Osprey. They're death traps!"
Hey Ouch, that's not exactly the way it goes. Col. Glover was in command and as such he gets all the glory, but he gets all the problems, too. Unfortunately, he got a bad break. Serves him right; he should have stayed enlisted. But look at it this way, he was makin' the big bucks.
I performed the reliability analyses of the V22's Ice protection system for Bell. The aircraft is a disaster with many single point failures that can cause loss of life. You can bet this officer was outed for complaining about the A/C. Even the Navy's 4 senior test pilots are dead from V22 crashes. Many $millions of money went into the pockets of the GS 14s and above and high level of Naval officers in Crystal City to keep this death trap program alive. I thought about writing a book of what I personally know, but I would wind up dead. One of the reasons I no longer live in the US.
The Ospreys are hugely expensive deathtraps which should not have been built.
The military twice tried to kill this program due to cost overruns and personnel safety concerns, but the US Congress forced the military to continue the program because of components for the aircraft built in their Districts.
These aircraft scare the hell out of the flight crews that are assigned to fly them, and the troops who are ordered to transport in them. The US Military and Congress should bite the bullet and retire (or sell) these aircraft and return to much less costly, more forgiving when systems fail (and more survivable) conventional helicopters, .... before many more American military personnel die needlessly.
To AG99 or any others questioning LTC Glover's leadership skills or character, I recommend that you read the comments section for the article about this situation on the Northwest Florida Daily News website.
The Osprey has it's problems, as all sofisticated pieces of military equipment do. But unless he commanded his people to do unsafe maneuvers there should be no loss of confidence there, at least not from his men.
Or was he relieved because he was NOT willing to hang his command out to dry because of those problems and his "management" felt he wasn't a team player.
I tend to believe the latter.
This thing had trouble fom the start.This cost mega bucks . Just more junkTHAT WE BUY
boo
how come issci not investigating this. instead of some cockamami about president wanting to take away gun .
Typical, fire the person who does not have any fault. this project and aircraft has had problems since its incepcion. Why not blame the manufacturer? I would not hoin our armed forces for all the gold in fort knox. No support and you are hung out to dry by those above. Pussy arse officers and piliticians
That so called plane has had problems since it was first built and the government people must have to keep pushing to bring it on line but the bottom line is it was not their money it was our money
The Osprey has had problems since it's conception and plenty of crashes. This is nothing new. Sorry for Lt.Col Glover, he is the typical pentagon scapegoat. Either he spoke up against something bad or wasn't a "yes man" That's why he got canned. If he ordered something reckless or against safety regulations then I can see him being removed. You don't get to be commander of a special operations squadron by being a sub-par idiot. Shame on the Air Force and Pentagon political correctness BS.
Great post dene67. Like I said in mine, typical Govt behavior
I'm sure Glover spoke up and was about to whistle blow. Common senario, General or full Colonel says to fly, little colonel tells them the plane is not safe they say fly anyway. Bad thing happens and immediately they take action to place blame on little colonel. Sh!t like that happens everyday in the military.
Amen Bullet171!!!! I couldn't have said it better! I spent 20 yrs in the Military and that's exactly what happens! When the ship is sinking all the high brass scurries to safety leaving the little guys holding the bag, and the blame!
Or could it be that the thieves on capitol hill,aka US Senators and House Representatives won't receive their kickback, or that the MIC-Military Industrial Complex knew the thing was not that reliable from the start.
I've been in the Osprey on a few occasions. It's a dangerous aircraft. I never liked riding in them, always wondered if I would make it to the LZ. Some of stories told by pilots of problems they had when transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight or vis-versa would sometimes make you say, " Fu-k it, I'll walk in! "
With as many problems and casualties that have been caused during it's development and deployment, it should have been @!$%# canned a long time ago.
I'm also wondering, due to the fact that swamp ( Florida ) phase of Ranger school is done at Eglin AFB ( Camp Rudder ), whether the injured were Ranger candidates. I didn't see that mentioned. Gonna have to keep my ears open.
AND WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU @!$%# CAN A LTC. 0-5 DUE TO A SUB PAR AIRCRAFT? Seems to be more to the story than is on the surface. Or they're just looking for a scapegoat.
They're using the Ltc as a scape goat... YOU know that as well as I do.
He might also have been working with the 7th Special Forces who just moved into an area of Eglin.
It's a cover story to be used for Japan. It would surprise me if this guy even exists.
Fire, Aim, Ready!
WAR Ranger
It is good that some things are not known. When it comes to this Country's security transparency is not all it is made out to be. There are still many things we did that are best not known-EVER! Ranger Privilege and all that.
CSGM USA RET
BobW,
Agreed, wholeheartedly! But, when your equipment is harming the very soldiers under your command and leadership, it is your duty to bring those shortcomings to the forefront for your men's safety. Unfortunatly, politics has a way of rearing it's ugly head. Especially as you progress up the chain of command.
Hey Bob W. why don't you use the correct abbreviation for your rank at retirement. There is no such thing as a CSGM it's either CSM or SGM. So are you just trying to say that at one time or another you served in each.
Congress buys crap because the companies who make it give Congress incentives to buy it and the American troops who serve there country pay with there lives. I did my service and saw this aircraft and other aircraft the government bought which was crap. The American people get screwed, our troops sacrify their lifes because of these idiots and congress gets rich. Something is wrong here. American people lets wake up and hold our Congress accountable too. This man served and now Congress needs an escape goat.
I just hate these stories with all the missing information. What exactly was his part in the crash?? You build a lousy plane and it will crash. Leadership has nothing to do with it. They needed a fall guy and he was it. This is a loss of a very important officer and totally unfair to him and the citizens of this country
congress hold yourself accountable, you all knew this plane was a piece of crap. i like you to see the individuals who bought this aircraft be relieved of duty. in my over 20 years in the service i saw alot of garbage bought and lot of lifes put in danger. lifes were also lost. the one to be relieved is our congress.
This tax payer funded boondoggle has never worked well, has crashed too many times and is a waste. We have spent untold millions if not more and seen it be supported by the military and those with a vested interest in seeing it built. This piece of work is right there with the militaries $1000 toilet seat.
Wiliam,
That is not the military's $1,000.00 toilet seat. That is the Department of Defense's. Yes, there is a big difference between the two.
Osprey? Phoenix is more like it. Those death traps keep being reborn from the ashes.
This aircraft has been a pain in the butt for the military from its inception. During development and training there were numerous crashes and mechanical problems that questioned the safety and operational use of the plane. Once again, those who had something to gain pushed the project on through. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a common occurrence in the military. Those who have a stake in any weapons system would rather see military personnel die during so-called training flights than admit they are wrong.
As a former Air Force Special Ops Flight Engineer, I would like to know more about the cause of this accident before assigning blame to the commander of the squadron that wasnt even onboard the flight. The Osprey is complex, it is not a Helicopter nor a replacement for it. Nor is it a fixed wing. It however can do things neither can. There is a mission for this aircraft's capabilities, there is also a cold hard flight envelope that if exceeded will kill. Look more at how the Osprey is being flown and utilized, over aggresive glory hounds coming with a high descent rate and a steep approach angle are going to get schooled by Darwin. The aircraft concept is sound, but further developement takes time. Give the concept more time to mature before pulling the plug. Equipped with hard points and several miniguns around the Aircraft it will make an incredible Special Ops platform, but things like this don't happen overnite.
"The aircraft concept is sound, but further developement takes time."
Begging your pardon Sir, but the taxpayer has been feeding this turkey an open checkbook since 1981 & it still cannot perform the lowered expectations or be counted on to do so .
This planes program was supposed to cost $2.5 Bill, at this point it is approaching $35.Bill or $100.00 a piece for every living American .
When is enough enough ??
We Americans have to play the blame game. When something happens, we have to point to a particular person as being responsible, drop the hammer on them, and thusly the real big brass is obsolved of all responsiblity. I am sure there is WAY more to his story than we are told. Lt Col Glover, thank you sir for your service. May God Bless you and work in your life.
Amen!
This aircraft was a designed POS,was a manufactured POS,was accepted by the military as a POS,and is a flying POS. The simple fact that it was given to the Marine Corps so soon after its acceptance,is pure proof it's a POS.The Marine Corps never,I repeat never,given a new aircraft,until it has been replaced by the ARMY and/or Air Force by something even newer.The Marine Corps should have said no thanks,we'll stick with the proven,reliable,and battle tested CH-53.By the time the Osprey slows to hover,and lands(hopefully safely) the 53 has ben in and out,and on its way.Used,and adapted correctly,the 53 has no equal. . period.The Osprey is nothing more than and over budget,over hyped,sorry assed POS.The Marine Corps needs to stick with the choppers.It's been the lifeline for thousands of Marines,all over the world.The Grunts didn't call them THE UGLY ANGELS for no reason.The Osprey will never see the battle ribbons the 53 has amassed.Not to mention the stories it can tell.(no help from CNN-only truth be told here)
Funny you bring that up dikki. When I was a kid my step dad, who was a Marine, would laughingly point out how they would paint over the US Army lettering with USMC on cast off equipment. He pointed out that the Marines did not get all that much 'new' stuff. Yeah, and I do remember all the ruckus about Osprey test flights going badly and then it seems you hardly heard about them and then, BAM!, the USMC is ordering them with open arms with hype and hoopla.
Take a helicopter's high rate of failure, double it with two primary rotors instead of one, and you have an Osprey.
Airplanes are highly complex multi-component machines. The Osprey is especially complicated because it tries to be both a hummingbird and a falcon. Design specs are difficult for a single bird and there are going to be deficiencies with a radical new design...That, along with the fact that pilots have varying degrees of skill will cause crashes. AA flight 587 that crashed in 2001 in NY was an example of a design that allowed a co-pilot with questionable stick and rudder skills to kill >265 people. (lost the vert. stabilizer due to excessive rudder inputs following wake turb.) Keep teaching and refining design and there will be FEWER accidents, notice fewer - not no accidents.
One of my pet accidents; where it was the FOs fault for excessive input the captain didn't countermand out of etiquette while negotiating a design akin to driving a Beetle with airbrakes down an iced mountain road.
There are designs so complex they outrun instinctive human skills.
People who have never gone into harm's way would probably not understand what happened here.
How the heck does "going into harm's way" have anything to do with understanding the causes of a plane crash? How about "people who don't have a firm understanding of aeronautical engineering, whether they have 'gone into harm's way or not, would probably not understand what happened here?'
We expect these folks to do crazy ass things, and then when things go awry, we chop their heads off.
I think it's time to start putting a few generals necks on the block, and let the real warriors keep doing what they do best. The kaka always runs down hill, leaving the big wigs clean as the driven snow. It's wrong.
Why are great warriors leaving the military? It's because risk averse remf's are running the show. It's all about cover your ass, don't take the risks that come with battle and training for battle. Nuts.
It's amazing that such a poorly written article could get posted on MSNBC. Things must be getting pretty bad there.
ALL of their articles are poorly written!
Yep. MSNBC and poorly written are synonymous.