A U.S. military aircraft carrying six people crashed into the sea in western Japan on Wednesday, killing at least one crew member with the condition of at least two hauled from waters unclear.
Japan’s coast guard said it found what appeared to be wreckage from the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey
The crash happened about 2:47 p.m. local time (0547 GMT) near the island’s airport, with witnesses saying the aircraft’s left engine appeared to be on fire as it descended
The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial, with critics saying the hybrid aircraft is prone to accidents. The U.S. military and Japan say it is safe.
updated the post after about 7 hours. article originally said 8 people were onboard during the crash. now says 6 were onboard with at least 1 confirmed death.
I used to play x-Plane which is a pretty realistic flight sim. Most planes are easy to fly, even airliners are very easy if a bit sluggish obviously.
The V-22 osprey has a slider lever to move the rotors from vertical to horizontal. They’re huge so the aircraft has to switch to vertical to land.
Touching that slider lever was a death wish. You had to really really fuck with the stick for the few seconds it took to transform, and it was incredibly easy to fling the whole aircraft into a forward tumble.
Absolutely insane aircraft