19 die in explosion of US Marines' rescue aircraft

The United States Marines faced questions about the safety and expense of its controversial new rescue aircraft, the MV-22 Osprey, yesterday after 19 people were killed in a crash during a training flight in southern Arizona.

The United States Marines faced questions about the safety and expense of its controversial new rescue aircraft, the MV-22 Osprey, yesterday after 19 people were killed in a crash during a training flight in southern Arizona.

The aircraft in question was simulating an evacuation at the Marana North-west regional airport near Tucson when it was seen exploding in mid-air and crashing directly to the ground shortly after sunset on Saturday night. It was carrying 15 Marines and four crew, all of whom perished.

The weather was clement and visibility good, making the cause of the crash a matter of some mystery. The aircraft had flown in with a second Osprey from Yuma, 250 miles away in south-western Arizona, and was due to fly back once the exercise was complete.

The Osprey, which has both rotor blades and fixed wings to enable it to take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane, was introduced into the Marineslast September after a troubled history of safety problems during its development. Wiring problems caused one crash in Delaware in 1991, and an engine fire killed seven people in another in Virginia in 1992. The government almost ditched its plans to replace the old CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, most famously used during the evacuations in Vietnam, but stayed with the Osprey as its manufacturers worked to make it lighter and, supposedly, safer. The Osprey, each of which costs $44m [£28m], travels twice as fast as the Sea Knight and twice as far.

The Marines have ordered 360 of the aircraft from Bell Helicopter Textron over the next two years. The Navy has ordered another 48.

William Cohen, the Defense Secretary who is travelling in the Middle East, refused to be drawn on the cause of Saturday's crash, saying: "It only points out how dangerous our training missions are, when we train with night vision capability equipment and that additional burden upon those who are flying the aircraft."