3 U.S. Marines dead, many injured in Australian training exercise.
Tragic Crash Claims Lives of U.S. Marines in Australia
Three U.S. Marines lost their lives during a training exercise on a picturesque northern Australian island. The incident occurred when an American MV-22B Osprey aircraft carrying the troops crashed, leaving several others wounded, according to officials.
The tiltrotor aircraft was transporting 23 U.S. Marines when it tragically crashed at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time on Melville Island. This island is situated off the Northern Territory of mainland Australia in the Timor Sea. The crash resulted in injuries to twenty Marines, with five in serious condition being flown to a town 50 miles away for urgent treatment, as reported by the Associated Press.
“Marine Rotational Force – Darwin can confirm a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey crash on Melville Island, north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, while transporting troops during a routine training exercise,” stated the Marine Rotational Force in Darwin (MRF-D) in a press release.
One of the injured Marines underwent surgery at a hospital in Darwin, according to Natasha Fyles, the chief minister of Australia’s Northern Territory. Recovery efforts are still underway, and the cause of the crash is currently under investigation, as mentioned in the MRF-D press release issued early Sunday.
According to an audio recording of an American official’s report to Australian air traffic controllers, there was a “significant fire in the vicinity of the crash site,” as reported by the AP.
The ill-fated Osprey aircraft was one of two that departed from the Australian town of Darwin for the Tiwi Islands, where Melville Island is located, approximately 50 miles away. The purpose of this ”routine training exercise” was to support Exercise Predators Run, a multi-nation military exercise involving the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor.
“The initial reports suggest that the incident involves just U.S. defense force personnel,” stated Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Our focus as a government and as the department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time.”
Exercise Predators Run, which includes approximately 2,500 participants, including 500 from the United States, has been temporarily paused following this tragic incident. The exercise, originally scheduled to conclude on September 7 after 12 days, has been put on hold.
While the cause of the incident remains unknown, this is not the first time the Osprey aircraft has been involved in a fatal crash. According to the AP, there have been five fatal crashes involving Marine Osprey aircraft since 2012. In June 2022, a mechanical failure related to the aircraft’s clutch resulted in the deaths of five Marines in California after an Osprey crash, as stated in a crash investigation report. Three months prior to that, four Marines were killed in an Osprey crash during a NATO exercise in Norway.
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