On November 29, 2023 an Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22 impacted the water one-half mile off the coast of Yakushima Island, Japan killing all eight of the Air Force personnel aboard.
The crash caused the Naval Air Systems Command better known as NAVAIR, that has ultimate authority over the V-22 program, to ground all variants of the aircraft.
About three months later that grounding order was lifted with a number of training requirements placed on squadrons before they could return to full mission status.
And then two months after that, the Pentagon revealed that the Osprey was restricted from flying greater than 30 minutes away from home base, a severe operational limit. NAVAIR has been mum about root cause behind the fatal crash throughout the months following the grounding order, return to flight, and follow-on operational restriction, but now the U.S. Air Force has released the accident investigation board report.
Credit: Ward Carroll