Maj. Patricia Linck-Mceaney was an MV-22 pilot for six years. The loss of her friend Nick ultimately led to her decision to never fly the Osprey again.
I’d Never Fly the Osprey Again. My Heart Was Broken, Yet Somehow Full at the Same Time.
FEBRUARY 28, 2024| PATRICIA LINCK-MCEANEY
June 9, 2022, started like any other day—I was up at five a.m. to get ready for work at Marine Aircraft Group 36 in Okinawa, Japan. At the end of my drive, I checked my phone and found a message from my good friend Teedha, my first flight doctor in the fleet.
There had been an Osprey mishap in California, she wrote, possibly at the VMM-364 squadron I’d left a little more than a year before. My stomach dropped as I pictured the faces of my friends still there and I told myself not to panic. I didn’t know anything yet—the severity of the crash or if anyone was hurt.
Inside, I logged on to my computer and, while my email uploaded, typed “Osprey crash California.” Sure enough, the media had already begun a frenzied race to see who would be the first to report on another V-22 crash—information that may or not be accurate.
The first article I pulled up confirmed it was indeed a VMM-364 aircraft. The accompanying photo by an airborne news crew captured an aerial view of the wreckage. The streak of charred debris on the desert floor leading to larger chunks of metal and proproters barely resembled an Osprey.
https://thewarhorse.org/marine-veteran-reconciles-risks-of-aviation-with-grief-loss/
