Osprey Crash Kills 19 Marines
ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Military investigators are looking for the cause of a deadly crash in Arizona. An Osprey aircraft carrying 19 Marines went down last night during a training mission. CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre has details.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Marine V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft crashed at night at an airport just northwest of Tucson, Arizona, where it was supposed to land and refuel after conducting an exercise to practice evacuation of civilians. All 19 Marines onboard were killed. Some eyewitnesses say they saw the V-22 take a nosedive and think it may have caught fire before it crashed. The pilots were wearing night vision goggles, which can limit peripheral vision, but officials don't yet know if that was a factor in the crash. The V-22 Osprey is new technology for the Marines. Only five production models have been delivered so far. It takes off like a helicopter but then rotates its propellers to fly like a plane, twice as fast and twice as far as older helicopters. Prototypes of the V-22 crashed twice in the early 1990s. The only other fatal accident was in 1992, when a faulty design caused the engines to catch fire. Seven people were killed when the aircraft plunged into the water near the Quantico Marine base. The Bush administration tried to kill the program, citing cost and safety concerns. But President Clinton resurrected it in 1993, and experts predict this accident, no matter how tragic, is unlikely to derail the V-22.</s>GREG SEIGLE, MILITARY AVIATION JOURNALIST: If it's a mechanical failure of some sort, they will correct it. They will field this aircraft. It's too late in development to turn around and stop now.</s>MCINTYRE: In development for more than a decade, the V-22 Osprey is just now going into full production. The Marines plan to buy 360 V-22s to replace aging Vietnam War-era CH-46 twin rotor transport helicopters. (on camera): This latest crash with its death toll of 19 Marines will again raise questions about whether the V-22 is battle-tested technology. But first investigators will have to determine if the crash resulted from a mechanical malfunction, or the most common cause of aviation accidents, pilot error. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>HALL: Part plane, part helicopter, the Osprey is a multimission aircraft jointly in development with the U.S. Navy, Marines and Air Force. The turboprop aircraft has rotors attached to wings that pivot upward, allowing it to take off and land like a helicopter. Introduced back in 1989, it can fly at speeds more than 300 miles an hour and at altitudes up to 25,000 feet. The Osprey is designed to carry up to 24 troops, two pilots and one crew chief. The Marine Corps' version will eventually be used as an assault transport for troops, equipment and supplies, designed to operate from ships or land. Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web