Families file lawsuit against Boeing and other manufacturers for alleged negligence in 2022 Osprey plane crash that claimed Marine lives.
A legal action filed last week concentrates on a MV-22B Osprey accident in June 2022, where five Marines stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California, lost their lives during a training operation. A Marine Corps examination in July 2023 stated that the crash was brought about by a mechanical problem and that there was "no fault on the part of the pilots and aircrew, and they could not foresee or prevent this disaster."
"They were performing normal flight procedures in accordance with applicable regulations when this unexpected and disastrous mechanical failure took place," the Marine Corps stated in 2024.
The five Marines killed were Captains Nicholas Losapio and John Sax; Corporals Nathan Carlson and Seth Rasmuson; and Lance Corporal Evan Strickland.
The lawsuit, brought forward by the relatives of Sax, Carlson, Strickland, and Rasmuson, charges Boeing, Bell Textron, Rolls Royce Corporation, and Rolls Royce North America with negligence, negligent and fraudulent misrepresentation, and failure to inform.
Tim Loranger, the attorney representing the families in the lawsuit, told CNN on Thursday that at its core, the lawsuit asserts that the plane the Marines were on had a known defect but "insufficient measures have been put in place to rectify it."
"We claim they had info they didn't disclose," Loranger said. "And here we are today as a result."
The mechanical breakdown in June 2024 involved the dual hard clutch engagement, which the Marine Corps said "produced a Single Engine and Interconnect Drive System (Single Engine/IDS) failure." The failure ultimately resulted in an "unrecoverable departure from controlled flight, leading to the unfortunate crash."
"Due to their defective products, breaches of contracts, breaches of warranties, illicit actions and omissions, the defendants named herein brought about the accident and the tragic deaths of Plaintiffs' decedents, five outstanding young United States Marines," the lawsuit claims.
Boeing, Bell Textron, and Rolls Royce have yet to comment on the request for comment from CNN. The lawsuit comes at a time when Boeing is under scrutiny and is expected to present a plan to rectify quality issues on its production line next week, following a hole opening on the side of a Boeing 737 Max mid-flight in January.
The lawsuit arrives after another explosive V-22 Osprey crash off the coast of Japan in December, which resulted in the deaths of eight US Special Operations airmen. The US military grounded its entire V-22 Osprey fleet as a result. The grounding guidelines were lifted in March this year; officials said at the time an investigation identified a "materiel failure" responsible for the crash.
Col. Brian Taylor, the program manager of the Naval Air Systems Command V-22 joint program office, informed reporters in March that the crash resulted from an "unprecedented" component failure, although he declined to specify which component failed or how.
The fatal crash near Japan was the most recent in a string of Osprey incidents. In August 2023, three US Marines passed away when a MV-22B Osprey crashed during military exercises in Australia. And in March 2022, just months before the five US Marines were killed in California, four US service members died in a MV-22 crash during a NATO exercise.
Loranger told CNN that it's unclear whether there is a common thread between the June 2024 crash and the other recent occurrences, but said the primary goal for the families in the lawsuit is to "find out why this aircraft crashed, why have other Ospreys crashed, and what steps have been taken to ensure this doesn't happen again."
"It's ensuring that when families send their Marines or airmen out to do their job, that they aren't going to receive a knock on their door because something broke in the (aircraft)," he added.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
