WASHINGTON — Hundreds of V-22 Osprey aircraft across the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy are still grounded, as they have been since Dec. 6, 2023.
The decision to stand-down the entire fleet followed a November crash in Japan that killed eight service members.
The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft that can fly like both a helicopter and airplane.
Air Force Special Operations Command now says it knows "what" failed on its CV-22B, but it still does not know why the failure happened. So, for the time being, the Pentagon says Osprey will stay in non-flying status.
"The cause of that failure is still under investigation. So, I'm not going to get ahead of that investigation. But while it's being completed, I think we'll leave it to the services to determine when it's best for those Ospreys to be relieved of that stand-down order. But right now, they're still not flying at this time," said Sabrina Singh, Defense Department Deputy Press Secretary.
There are two groups looking into the Japan crash — a safety investigation board, and an accident investigation board. Both investigations are still ongoing.