Officer Admits to Osprey Deception

Pentagon officials said Friday that the commander of the Marine Corps’ Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft program admitted that he asked his maintenance crew to falsify records. But they insisted that the faulty data did not play a direct role in crashes that killed 23 Marines last year.

The Pentagon released a letter from a Marine whistle-blower at the plane’s base in New River, N.C., warning top military officials that forcing the maintenance crew to cover up the Osprey’s shortcomings “is illegal.”

Lt. Col. Odin Fred Leberman, commanding officer of Marine Tilt-Rotor Aircraft Squadron-204, was suspended Thursday amid an investigation into the allegations of records falsification. The disciplinary action came as a team of inspectors descended on the base to interview all 241 Osprey team members to attempt to determine just how reliable the aircraft is.

On Capitol Hill on Friday, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), chairwoman of a Senate military oversight committee, pushed for a parallel investigation “of every level in the chain of command” of the Osprey to find out whether other top-level supervisors falsified records.

The whistle-blower’s letter and an audiotape were sent anonymously to the secretary of the Navy last week. Officials said Leberman’s voice could be heard on the tape directing others to “continue to lie” about the plane’s problems and flight readiness.

Confronted with the tape, Leberman conceded having played a role in the falsifications, according to Pentagon sources.

The four-paragraph letter, unsigned, typed and addressed “to whom it may concern,” clearly was written by someone keenly involved in the maintenance of the controversial aircraft.

“What we have been doing is reporting aircrafts that are down, as in they can’t fly; as being up, as in full mission capable,” the person wrote.

“This type of deception has been going on for over two years, however this is the first time it will affect safety.”

The writer said that Osprey program officials “would just throw out the data they didn’t like.”

“This is not what caused the previous two mishaps this year, but if it continues it will cause many more,” the letter said. “It all stems from the attitude that we have to have the plane whether or not it is ready.”

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen was circumspect in discussing allegations that others besides Leberman might be culpable. “If they prove to be true, that would be a very serious charge, certainly,” Cohen said of the allegations. “And it would have consequences, certainly, for the individuals involved.”

Leberman, 45, had commanded the training squadron at New River since June 1999. He is a 21-year Marine who has specialized as a tilt-rotor pilot himself.

The Osprey is considered innovative for wartime maneuvers because it has rotors that can be moved from a vertical axis to a horizontal axis, allowing it to take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane.

It can carry up to 24 Marines as far as 2,000 miles, loading and unloading them in combat areas.

The project, which is expected to cost $40 billion, had enjoyed strong congressional support. But concerns about the plane’s safety and reliability have grown in the wake of last year’s two training accidents.

Nineteen Marines were killed in a crash on April 8 in Arizona, and four more died in a crash Dec. 11 near the New River station.

At the Pentagon on Friday, Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle, head of Marine Corps aviation, said he was sure that the falsification of maintenance data did not lead to the two fatal crashes.

“Based on all the information we have at this time, we see no relationship,” McCorkle said. “We have never seen a link between maintenance and the accidents from the start.”

Leberman was relieved of duty “because of a loss of confidence,” McCorkle said. “I felt that that should be done.”

McCorkle denied that Leberman or any other squadron supervisors were under pressure to make the Osprey look better than it really is.

“None of our commanders, whether they’re ground or air or whatever else, are under any pressure to lie or to have any sort of an integrity challenge for the United States Marine Corps,” he said.

He added that there had been no “pressure that I’ve seen, or I would put a foot in somebody’s back.”

McCorkle said a review of the Dec. 11 crash is “99% complete.” He said it determined that the accident happened when the aircraft’s hydraulic system failed, followed by software errors that made the Osprey incapable of flying.

The last words from the Osprey crew, he said, were: “Emergency. We’re going down. We’re going down.”