Marine Corps Vows to Learn From Fatal Crash

Under a cold and driving rain that added to the sadness of the occasion, 15 “grunt” Marines killed in the crash of a controversial aircraft were remembered Monday as among the “bravest and brightest” of young Americans.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Jones told several hundred family members of the victims, “You can take solace in the fact that your Marines and your loved ones did not die in vain. We will learn from this tragedy.”

After the service, Jones told reporters that the Marine Corps remains steadfast in its support of the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and has found nothing to suggest that the crash outside Tucson was the result of a design flaw.

“The fact that this is a new aircraft does not make it a test aircraft,” he said. “ . . . It was a production aircraft, one we felt very comfortable flying in.”

Still, Jones said he has ordered that other Ospreys remain on an “operational pause” until investigators determine whether the April 8 crash, which killed 15 combat troops and four crew members, was the result of pilot error or a mechanical defect in the individual aircraft.

Jones said that when he orders the Ospreys back to flight status, he will be aboard the first flight to show his faith in the aircraft, which is designed to lift off like a helicopter but fly like a fixed-wing aircraft.

Studying the crash will help the mechanics and pilots assigned to the Osprey, Jones said. The doomed aircraft’s flight data recorder was recovered and is being analyzed at the Pentagon.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), who attended Monday’s service, said congressional support for the Osprey project remains strong.

Hunter, chairman of the military procurement subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, said the upcoming budget will contain money to continue the project.

Maj. Todd Eckloff called on Marines attending the service to redouble their devotion to the Corps out of respect for those who died in the crash.

“Anything less than our best would dishonor the memory of our fallen brothers,” said Eckloff, his voice cracking.

Lt. Col. Mark Callihan, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, told the gathering that “the Corps is less of the flesh than of the spirit.”

Of the 15 Marines, 14 were stationed at Camp Pendleton and one at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego.

The crash occurred as the Marines were participating in desert training before their deployment to the Persian Gulf.

Four Ospreys were taking part in an exercise to train troops in what has become a Marine Corps specialty in the post-Cold War era: evacuating civilians from a hostile environment.

Although the cause of the crash has not been officially pinpointed, Marine officials have discounted eyewitness accounts that the aircraft was on fire before it crashed. Officials said the explosion and fire were caused when the Osprey crashed nose-down.

“We see no design flaws,” said Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle, deputy commandant for aviation.

All 19 aboard were killed instantly. The crash rocked an Osprey flying nearby, and that craft experienced a hard landing, although there were no injuries.

The Osprey is meant to fulfill the Marines’ need to deliver combat troops and equipment ashore quickly and without the availability of airstrips.

Jones and Hunter said that despite the tragedy, the Osprey will save American lives because its speed allows it to evade enemy gunfire.

“This is an aircraft that will save lives, not take them, over the long run,” Jones said.

After the service, family members huddled near field packs and weapons arranged to symbolize the 15 dead.

“He was a strong, moral person and he loved the Marine Corps,” said a tearful Jason Neely, whose cousin, Cpl. Adam C. Neely, was aboard the craft.

Destined to be stationed aboard amphibious assault ships, the Osprey is designed to replace the aging CH-46 Sea Knight, which joined the fleet during the Vietnam War. The Osprey can fly twice as fast and four times as far, and carry twice as much weight as the Sea Knight.

The crash was the deadliest involving Marines since a helicopter crash in South Korea in 1989 killed 22.

An early model of the Osprey crashed into the Potomac River near Quantico, Va., in 1992, killing three Marines and four civilians aboard. Military and aircraft company officials have insisted that the engine flaw blamed for that crash has been corrected.

A memorial service was held Friday at Quantico for the Osprey’s four crew members. They were part of a helicopter squadron whose duties include flying Marine Corps One, the helicopter used by the president.

Like most military aircraft, the Osprey has had its share of controversy, with critics suggesting that its innovative tilt-rotor design is unworkable and that its price tag is too high. The major contractors are Boeing Co. and Bell Helicopter Textron.

The George Bush administration attempted in 1992 to kill the Osprey program, but boosters in Congress, particularly congressmen from districts in Texas and Pennsylvania where the aircraft is to be built, saved it.

At $44 million each, the Marine Corps has ordered 360 Ospreys, the Navy 48 and the Air Force 50. The first of the aircraft are to be deployed in three years.

Although a rainstorm kicked up just moments before Monday’s service was to begin, officials opted not to move the ceremony indoors.

More than 1,000 rain-soaked Marines sat in bleachers. Two large tents provided shelter for the family members of those killed.

The weather reminded Jones of an incident three decades earlier.

“The first Marine I saw die died in my arms in a rice paddy in South Vietnam,” said Jones. “I was 23 years old and it was a day very much like this: in a driving, miserable downpour. . . . I anguish every time this happens.”