SYDNEY: Military officials called off a search and rescue operation for three US marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia while trying to land.
The US navy and marine corps suspended the rescue operation on Sunday and launched a recovery effort instead, the marine base Camp Butler in Japan said, essentially confirming the military does not expect to find the missing people alive.
The marines' next of kin had been notified, and Australia's defence force was assisting the Americans with the recovery effort.
The MV-22 Osprey had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations on Saturday when it crashed into the water, Camp Butler said.
The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts, and 23 of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft were rescued.
"Recovery and salvage operations can take several months to complete, but can be extended based on several environmental factors," Camp Butler said.
"The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation, and there is no additional information available at this time."
The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an aeroplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.
The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the US and Australia last month in Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state.
The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft.
Australian defence minister Marise Payne said Saturday's incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay.
"I can confirm no Australian defence force personnel were on board the aircraft," she said.
Ms Payne said she had spoken with US defence secretary Jim Mattis "to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance".
A White House official said President Donald Trump had been briefed by chief of staff John Kelly on the incident.
In 2015, a US Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Hawaii, killing two marines.
Last December, a US military Osprey crash-landed off Japan's southern island of Okinawa. Its five crew members were rescued safely. And in January, three US soldiers were wounded in the "hard landing" of an Osprey in Yemen.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here