A CV-22 Osprey – the special operations version of the controversial MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor – crashed last night in southern Afghanistan. According to an International Security Assistance Force news release, the incident claimed the lives of three U.S. servicemembers and one civilian employee. Several other military personnel were injured.

This is apparently the first loss of an Osprey on a combat mission. The aircraft, which can take off and land like a helicopter, then transition to forward flight like a fixed-wing aircraft, had a long and controversial development history. But the Marines rotated two Osprey squadrons through Iraq without any major incidents.

Richard Whittle, author of the newly published The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey, told Danger Room, "No one's ever claimed the Osprey was invulnerable, and since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001, the U.S. has lost more than 300 rotorcraft there and in Iraq from various causes in crashes that killed nearly 500 people."

But, Whittle added: "If the cause was aerodynamic – if this Osprey lost its engines for some reason and was trying to autorotate to a landing, meaning float down on the cushion of lift even unpowered rotors can provide – then the critics who warned that this was a fatal weakness in the Osprey are going to be able to say 'I told you so.'"

The CV-22 went down approximately seven miles west of Qalat City, in Zabul Province. The Taliban claimed credit for downing the aircraft (It's also common practice for the insurgents to claim to have shot down aircraft that went down for other reasons). ISAF said an investigation into the cause of the crash was still underway.

Photo: U.S. Air Force