U.S. tiltrotor aircraft crashes in northern Norway during exercise

The plane was participating in Exercise Cold Response 2022 and was en route towards Bodø airport when it was reported missing at 18:26 Friday evening. Norway’s civilian Joint Rescue Coordination Center Northern Norway immediately launched a search and rescue operation with helicopters scrambled from Bodø and a military P-3 Orion from Ørland airbase.

Discoveries of the crashed plane were made from air at 21:17 in Gråtådalen in Beiarn municipality, just north of Saltfjellet mountain massif, the Armed Forces of Norway informs.

The cause of the incident is under investigation, and additional details will be provided when available, the U.S. Marines informs in a statement late Friday evening.

We are aware of a mishap involving a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey
assigned to II MEF in Norway this evening. More information will be released
here as it becomes available. pic.twitter.com/GstIlHZxZZ

— II MEF (@iimefmarines) March 19, 2022

“Although the nature of military service is inherently dangerous, the safety of our Marines, Sailors, Allies and partners is our top priority,” the press statement by the II Marine Expeditionary Force reads.

Due to bad weather in the area, with strong winds, rescue helicopters could not land near the crash site, but police and rescue crews on snowmobiles and by foot arrived at the crash site around 01.30 am and could later confirm the crew of four were killed.

The weather at site is Saturday morning worsening. 

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V-22 Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing, but in the air can fly as a turboprop plane. The advantage in military operations is its need for short takeoff and landing sites, but longer range and faster speed than a normal helicopter.

The U.S. Armed Forces have a fleet of 375 V-22s of which 48 are operated by the U.S. Navy.

Since the first test-flights of the aircraft started in 1991, there have been 12 hull-loss accidents with a total of 42 fatalities. With such accident history, there could be reasons to question the safety of its operation.

Exercise Cold Response currently taking place in Norway is the largest NATO drill inside the Arctic Circle since the 1980ties. Tens of thousands of troops from 27 nations are participating.

A key goal of exercise Cold Response is to train reinforcing Norway military with naval and aircraft assets, showing that Norwegian and allied forces are capable of carrying out complete joint operations during snowy cold-climate challenging situations.

10 years ago, on March 15th 2012, a Norwegian C-130J Hercules transport plane crashed into Mount Kebnekaise near Kiruna, northern Sweden with all crew members of five onboard being killed. The aircraft was participating in the Cold Response military exercise and was en route from Evenes airport in northern Norway to Kiruna.

The rescue operation in 2012 was similar to the ongoing search in Gråtådalen challenged by bad weather.