Military plane crash: Four reported dead in California after aircraft goes down

Four are dead and one person is missing after a military aircraft crashed in the Southern California desert near the US-Mexico border on Wednesday.

Graeme Massie had the details.

Wednesday’s military aircraft crash in Southern California is not the first involving a Boeing-made Osprey tilt-rotor vehicle.

In 2015, an Osprey crashed at Bellows Air Force Base in Hawaii, killing Marine Lance Corporal Matthew J Determan.

His family alleged a failure of the vehicle’s engine air particle separator caused the crash.

In 2019, the Ninth Circuit federal court ruled that Boeing and the other contractors who designed the Osprey were immune from suit because they made the vehicle in accordance with government specifications.

Four people are dead after a military MV-22B Osprey went down near Glamis, California, on Wednesday.

Multiple branches of the military use the Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft that can take off vertically like a helicopter, then tilt its rotors forward and fly horizontally like a plane.

The Osprey went into service in 2007, after a rocky development history.

It was tested for military use since 1989, but the program had multiple crashes, killing 30 people.

The Osprey was first deployed in Iraq.

The military aircraft that crashed in Southern California went down in a desolate part of the desert near the US-Mexico border.

Aerial footage from iHeartMedia reporter Malik Earnest captures just how empty the area where the Osprey tilt-rotor craft went down really is.

Dune buggies and helicopters have been deployed in the rescue effort, as first-responders search for a fifth passenger who was onboard the craft.

New audio, obtained by NewsNation, reveals the initial 911 calls that alerted authorities to a downed military air craft in Southern California on Wednesday.

“We have a military aircraft down,” one voice can be heard saying.

“I have a visual on a military aircraft as we’re flying over the site and I do have a visual on the crash site as well,” another responds.

The crash of an Osprey aircraft on Wednesday is the second military aviation accident in a week in the region.

Based at Naval Air Station Lemoore and part of Strike Fighter Squadron 113, the lietenant was flying a routine training mission, according to the Navy.

He crashed in a remote, unpopulated area, and the incident is currently under investigation.

The MV-22B Osprey military jet involved in today’s crash in Southern California is the same kind of tilt-rotor aircraft that crashed during a NATO excercise in Norway in March, killing four onboard.

Here’s our story on the tragedy.

“An aircraft belonging to @3rdmaw has crashed near Glamis, CA. Military and civilian first responders are on site. Contrary to social media rumors, there was no nuclear material on board the aircraft. More information will be made available as we receive it.”

Ospreys are flown by the Marines, Navy and Air Force to transport troops and equipment. It is a tiltrotor aircraft that has a higher top speed and longer range than a helicopter but can hover and land in a similar manner.

Four North Carolina-based Marines were killed in an Osprey crash in March during a NATO exercise in Norway.

The Naval Air Facility El Centro, which is around 30 miles from the crash site, says that contrary to initial reports there was no nuclear material on board the aircraft, which belonged to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

“We can confirm that an aircraft belonging to 3d Marine Aircraft Wing crashed near Glamis, CA. Military and civilian first responders are on site. Contrary to initial reports, there was no nuclear material on board the aircraft. More information will be made available as we receive it,” the base said on Facebook.