Crash unlikely to derail V-22 plans, experts say

Marines suspend use of tilt-rotor craft, send team of investigators to find cause WASHINGTON - The fatal crash of a V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft has delayed the Marine Corps'

Tuesday, April 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Marines suspend use of tilt-rotor craft, send team of investigators to find cause

WASHINGTON - The fatal crash of a V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft has delayed the Marine Corps' use of four other Ospreys but is unlikely to slow Pentagon plans to buy 458 of the revolutionary planes, congressional and other experts said Tuesday.

The twin-engine V-22, a joint product of Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth and Boeing Co. of Ridley Park, Pa., takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like an airplane. The V-22 that crashed went nose down and burned while trying to land Saturday night near Tucson, Ariz., killing all 19 Marines aboard.

The Marine Corps sent a crash investigation team to the scene Sunday and informally suspended flight testing of its other four V-22s.

Monday, the head of Marine Corps aviation, Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle, said he expected to "have a pretty good idea" what caused the crash within a week.

A Marine Corps F-18 fighter-bomber flying overhead recorded the accident on infrared tape, Gen. McCorkle said, and the crew chief of a second V-22 that was landing nearby saw the Osprey going into the ground nose first.
The general said the V-22 issued no distress signal. The weather was clear, the winds were calm and visibility was 20 miles. The pilots were using night-vision goggles and infrared radar while performing an evacuation exercise.

Recorder not found

The Osprey carried no cockpit voice recorder, he said, and its flight data recorder had not been found.

Marine investigators were examining reports by eyewitnesses who said they saw fire and possibly an explosion before the craft hit the ground, spokesman Maj. Dave LaPan said.
"We've gotten varying eyewitness accounts of what may have happened," he said.

Maj. LaPan said the Marine Corps was unlikely to change its timetable for completing tests of the Osprey and deploying the aircraft with Marine squadrons. But he said a decision would have to await the result of the investigation.

The Marine Corps has temporarily suspended V-22 flights "mostly out of respect for the dead and their families," Maj. LaPan said. Only the Naval Air Systems Command could order a grounding, and it has not done so, he said.
Despite the tragedy, members of Congress said they remained confident in the $44 million aircraft.

"Of course we are going to want to know that there is a thorough investigation and we know what caused this crash," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. But she said she hadn't "heard anyone question the need for the V-22."

'Highest priority'

"It has always been the Marines' highest priority, because it has unique capabilities that are not duplicated in any other piece of equipment," Ms. Hutchison said.

Bell Helicopter spokesman Bob Leder said the Bell-Boeing joint venture had sent experts to assist in the crash investigation. The company lowered flags at its facilities to half-staff in honor of the victims, he added.

"There's just a real feeling of devastation around here when an aircraft you build crashes," Mr. Leder said. "Concern and sympathy for the families of the victims."
But Mr. Leder said Bell-Boeing officials remained confident of the Osprey's design, manufacture and future.

"We know the aircraft is not flawed," Mr. Leder said, referring to the Osprey in general, not the one that crashed. "The aircraft has completed well over 4,000 flight hours since the first aircraft was flown in 1989. It's flown under a wide variety of conditions and successfully completed every operational test it's gone through."

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., whose district includes the Boeing plant near Philadelphia, said, "Our major concerns are with the families of those who were killed. Why this particular aircraft crashed, we have to find out."

Mr. Weldon said he was arranging a Tuesday briefing on the program to reassure other members of Congress. But he said that the V-22 had been thoroughly tested in thousands of flight hours since 1989 and that it was "highly doubtful" a "technology problem" caused the crash.

Crash history

He noted that was determined as the cause of one of the only other two V-22 crashes since the program began.

In 1991, a developmental version of the V-22 crashed in Wilmington, Del. No one was injured in that incident, which an investigation found was caused by an incorrectly wired gyroscope.

In 1992, four Marines and three civilians died when a V-22 they were riding in a demonstration flight plunged into the Potomac River near Washington.

Investigators determined that a fire in the driveshaft system caused that accident. The jury in a federal lawsuit by the families of two of the victims against Bell Helicopter and two subcontractors found last year that the companies were not at fault.

"This program has had more flight time prior to production than any aircraft in the nation's history," Mr. Weldon said. "It's not like the aircraft just came off the research pad."
The Bush administration sought to cancel the program as too costly, but Mr. Weldon said the V-22 "enjoys broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill" these days.

An aide to a key House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee member said there was no reason to expect that the crash will shake that congressional confidence.
'Trial by fire'

"This was a test flight, and sometimes you have these problems on test flights," the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The program sort of went through a trial by fire under the Bush administration, came very close to being killed," he said. "Unless the Marine Corps comes and says we've got a big problem with this program, you're not going to see Congress do something about it."

The program's supporters include Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

The aide said Mr. Lewis and other V-22 supporters "believe the contractors and the Marine Corps solved the concerns" about the aircraft's safety that were raised by the 1991 and 1992 crashes.

President Clinton's 2001 defense budget requested $1.8 billion to purchase 20 V-22s - 16 for the Marines and four for the Air Force. The Marine Corps version is designated MV-22 while the Air Force plane is called the CV-22.
Mr. Weldon, Ms. Hutchison and others agreed that Congress was almost certain to approve the money for those aircraft.

"The V-22 program remains a vital element to the Marine Corps' future operational needs," said Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, whose district includes the Bell Helicopter plant. "I will be watching the investigation closely but believe the V-22 still warrants congressional support as a leading-edge troop transport and deployment aircraft."

Purchase plans

The Marines plan to buy 360 Ospreys. The Air Force is to buy 50 for use by the U.S. Special Operations Command. The Navy plans to purchase 48 for search and rescue and other missions.

The common stock of Textron Inc., parent of Bell Helicopter, which makes the Osprey's wings and engine and assembles the aircraft in Amarillo, closed Tuesday at $61.12, up 19 cents.

Stock in Boeing Co., owner of the Pennsylvania plant that makes the V-22's fuselage, landing gear and cockpit flight-control system, closed at $35.06, down 19 cents.

The V-22, the only tilt rotor aircraft in the world, uses two oversized propellers powered by Rolls Royce T-406 turboshaft engines to take off like a helicopter.

The Osprey then rotates the propellers 90 degrees and flies like an airplane, enabling it to cruise at 316 mph with a range of 2,000 miles - far faster and farther than conventional helicopters can fly.

The Marines primarily plan to use the aircraft, which can carry 24 passengers, to replace the aging CH-46 helicopters it now relies upon to bring troops ashore from ships.

"These aircraft are replacing some very dangerous aircraft that were built for the Vietnam War," Mr. Weldon said. "I think we have to keep this in perspective."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.