Widows Win Battle To Clear Marine Pilots In Osprey Flight Test Accident | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-10.06.25

AirborneNextGen-
10.07.25

Airborne-Unlimited-10.08.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-10.09.25

AirborneUnlimited-10.10.25

Tue, Apr 26, 2016

Widows Win Battle To Clear Marine Pilots In Osprey Flight Test Accident

DoD Admits That It Is Not Possible To 'Determine A Single Cause' In The 2000 Accident

The U.S. Department of Defense has cleared two Marine Corps pilots in an accident in which 19 people were fatally injured during evaluation of the MV-22 Osprey in 2000.

Test pilots Lt. Col. John Brow and Maj. Brooks Gruber were flying the aircraft during an exercise in Arizona when it went down in the desert. All 19 on board were fatally injured in the accident.

The Marine Corps and DoD initially placed responsibility for the accident on the two pilots. The aircraft at the time was controversial, and many, including then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney were trying to kill the program.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the pilots were saddled with the blame for the crash until U.S. Congressman Walter B. Jones (R-NC) took up the cause of the widows of the two pilots.

In February, nearly 16 years after the accident occurred, retired Marine officer and now Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work wrote a letter saying "it’s impossible to point to a single ‘fatal factor’ that caused this crash."

The Marine Corps in a statement only acknowledged the loss of life in the accident. "This was a tragic event that occurred nearly 16 years ago, and we continue to mourn the loss of our Marines, as we have every day since the event," Marine Corps HQ said in a news release.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.marines.mil

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (10.13.25): Homing [ICAO]

Homing [ICAO] The procedure of using the direction-finding equipment of one radio station with the emission of another radio station, where at least one of the stations is mobile, >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (10.13.25)

Aero Linx: European Regions Airline Association (ERA) The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) represents a diverse membership of over 50 airlines and more than 150 associate>[...]

ANN FAQ: Q&A 101

A Few Questions AND Answers To Help You Get MORE Out of ANN! 1) I forgot my password. How do I find it? 1) Easy... click here and give us your e-mail address--we'll send it to you >[...]

NTSB Prelim: CubCrafters Carbon Cub

While On Short Final, About 300 Ft, The Pilot Performed A Forced Landing Near Trees On September 7, 2025, about 0932 eastern daylight time, a CubCrafters Carbon Cub EX airplane, N4>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (10.14.25): Severe Icing

Severe Icing The rate of ice accumulation is such that ice protection systems fail to remove the accumulation of ice and ice accumulates in locations not normally prone to icing, s>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC