The U.S. military grounded its entire fleet of V-22 Osprey aircraft on Wednesday one week after a deadly crash off the coast of southern Japan killed eight airmen, the latest in a series of alarming and fatal mishaps.
Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), directed the stand-down while an investigation into the Nov. 29 accident, then characterized as a failed emergency water landing, continued, according to a statement. The Navy and Marine Corps also chose to suspend flights of their versions of the Osprey, The Associated Press reported, after initial results of AFSOC’s probe turned up evidence that a fault in the aircraft itself, rather than pilot error, caused the crash.
“Preliminary investigation information indicates a potential materiel failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this…
