Air Force ends effort to recover final member of downed Osprey’s crew
By Courtney Mabeus-Brown
Jan 11, 09:58 PM
The Air Force said Thursday it has called off a weekslong search effort that failed to recover the remains of the eighth and final special operations airman killed in a CV-22 Osprey crash late last year.
In the six weeks since the tiltrotor Osprey went down in the sea off southern Japan during a Nov. 29 training mission, killing all onboard, a multinational search party comprised of more than 1,000 personnel, 46 aircraft, 23 maritime vessels and 21 unmanned aerial and underwater drones scoured more than 60,000 square kilometers of the ocean’s surface and 29 square kilometers of ocean floor, the Air Force said.
The accident, which remains under investigation, is the deadliest Air Force mishap since 2018, and the fourth fatal Osprey crash in two years.
By Rachel S. Cohen
The around-the-clock hunt successfully recovered the bodies of seven members of the Japan-based Osprey’s crew and most of the aircraft’s fuselage. But despite their extensive resources, the search team proved unable to secure the remains of Maj. Eric “Doc” Spendlove, a flight surgeon and medical operations flight commander at Kadena Air Base’s 1st Special Operations Squadron.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-air-force/2024/01/12/air-force-ends-effort-to-recover-final-member-of-downed-ospreys-crew/
