Japan Press Weekly

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2012 July 4 - 10 [US FORCES]

Deployment of defective Ospreys would jeopardize people’s lives: JCP Akamine

Japanese Communist Party parliamentarian Akamine Seiken on July 9 used his question time in the Diet to grill the government over the safety of the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and stated that the deployment would jeopardize Japanese people’s lives.

Regarding the safety of the Osprey, a pamphlet published by the Defense Ministry clearly states that the Osprey can perform an autorotation landing. Defense Minister Morimoto Satoshi also said that the U.S. government provided him with the explanation that the aircraft has an autorotation capability which is essential to safe landing if all engines are inoperative.

At a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, Akamine pointed out that the Boeing and Bell Company, the manufacturer of the aircraft, in its Osprey guidebook states that the MV-22 “does not rely on autorotation.” He pointed out that the Osprey has no autorotation capability.

The defense minister replied, “The MV-22 Osprey is exempted from the obligation to have the autorotation capability which is usually imposed on rotary-wing aircraft under the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration standards.”

Citing that the Japan’s aviation law prohibits any helicopter lacking autorotation capability from taking flight, Akamine said that the Osprey is unacceptable.”

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Akahata on July 8 reported that an internal document edited by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) of the U.S. Department of Defense declares that the MV-22 Osprey lacks autorotation capability. The document entitled “Lingering safety concerns over V-22” was compiled in December 2003 following a fatal crash in 2000 that killed 19 Marines.

Former U.S. Marine Corps officer and military analyst, Carlton Meyer, who obtained the document from a whistleblower, said to Akahata that the document was evidently written by Rex Rivolo who used to work at the IDA. Rivolo in 2009 at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives pointed out the Osprey’s lack of ability to auto rotate.