This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A US Marine has died and 21 people have been taken to hospital after their Osprey aircraft made a hard landing in Hawaii on Sunday.

The tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter but has wings to fly like an airplane, had a “hard-landing mishap” about 11 am, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit said.

Officials did not provide details about the conditions of the injured Marines, who were training at Bellows air force station on Oahu. Twenty-two people were aboard the aircraft, including 21 Marines and one Navy corpsman assigned to the unit, spokesman Captain Brian Block said.

The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit is based at Camp Pendleton in California and is in Hawaii for about a week for training.

A hiker, Kimberly Hynd, said she was navigating the popular Lanikai pillbox trail and could see three Osprey aircraft performing maneuvers from her vantage point in the hills above the air force station. She said she noticed them kicking up dirt but then saw smoke and fire.

Ospreys may be equipped with radar, lasers and a missile defense system. Each can carry 24 Marines into combat.

Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the Osprey program was nearly scrapped after a history of mechanical failures and two test crashes that killed 23 Marines in 2000.

The aircraft have since been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.



