Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 November 1 - 7 [US FORCES]

Osprey’s mishap rate increases 1.7 times in five years

The rate of serious accidents involving MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in 2017 was 1.7-fold worse than that in 2012, the United States Marine Corps answered to an Akahata inquiry on November 3. This indicates that the Japanese government has been making questionable assertions about the Osprey’s safety.

The U.S. Marines categorizes aviation mishaps involving the loss of life or more than two million dollars in damage as Class A and makes public the rate of Class A accidents per 100,000 flight hours.

In July 2012, MV-22 Ospreys were deployed to the USMC Futenma base in Okinawa. Three months before the deployment, Japan’s Defense Ministry announced that the Osprey’s accident rate of 1.93 is lower than the Marine Corps’ average Class A mishap rate of 2.45. Based on this figure, the Japanese government insisted that MV-22s’ safety is fully confirmed, justifying the aircraft’s deployment to the Futenma base.

According to the USMC’s response to the Akahata inquiry, however, as of September 30 this year, the MV-22’s serious-mishap rate went up by 1.7 times to 3.27 from five years ago, higher than the USMC’s average of 2.72.

Abe Cabinet spokesperson Suga Yoshihide at a regular press conference on October 30 said, “The accident rate is just a yardstick figure to assess the Osprey’s safety.”

Past related articles:
> MV22 makes emergency landing in Okinawa, bringing dangerous Ospreys into spotlight yet again [October 1, 2017]
> Protests continue across Japan against Osprey flights after fatal crash [August 13&14, 2017]
> US military recovers crashed Osprey ignoring Japan’s request [December 17 & 18, 2016]
> US plans to deploy MV-22 Osprey to Futenma in July [April 26, 2012]