WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) — The U.S. military said Wednesday that it is grounding its entire fleet of V-22 Osprey aircraft one week after an Air Force CV-22 crashed off the coast of Japan, killing eight U.S. airmen onboard.
The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) said in a statement that its commander, Tony Bauernfeind, directed an operational standdown to \”mitigate risk while the investigation continues\” into the Nov. 29 crash of a CV-22 Osprey off the coast of Yakushima, an island in southern Japan, that killed all the eight crew members, all of them servicemen of AFSOC.
\”Preliminary investigation information indicates a potential material failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time,\” the statement said.