Japanese military stops V-22 Osprey flights after unexpected ground contact incident
A V-22 Osprey hit ground during take-off at joint US-Japan military exercise last week. Japanese officials grounded their entire Osprey fleet after this technical problem
The Japanese military stopped using its V-22 Osprey fleet after a take-off problem happened last week. During the Keen Sword joint-exercise‚ one aircraft hit the ground with its left wing (which caused some damage to the machine)
The hybrid helicopter-plane was carrying sixteen people including three US service members when the incident occurred. The aircraft started moving side-to-side in an un-stable way during its take-off attempt: this led to the lower part touching the ground
The Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces explained the situation in detail; they mentioned how the aircraft got un-balanced and couldnt complete its flight. The exercise was part of a bigger US-Japan military cooperation program‚ but this technical issue made them stop the operation right away
