DARWIN, AUSTRALIA — Military officials confirm the names of those killed in the U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey crash on Melville Island, north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, on Sunday morning. They are identified as U.S. Marine Corps Captain Eleanor V. LeBeau, female, 29, MV-22B Osprey pilot for VMM-363 (REIN), Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, originally from Belleville, Illinois.
U.S. Marine Corps Major Tobin J. Lewis, male, 37, the executive officer of VMM-363 (REIN), Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, originally from Jefferson, Colorado.
U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Spencer R. Collart, male, 21, MV-22B Osprey crew chief for VMM-363 (REIN), Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, originally from Arlington, VA
Three Marines remain in Royal Darwin Hospital, with one in critical condition and two in stable condition. 17 others were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released.
Up to 2,500 U.S. Marines have been based in Darwin for six months a year since 2012 as part of the U.S. military pivot to Asia to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
Col. Brendan Sullivan, the commanding officer of the Marine Rotation Force-Darwin, said the Marines’ focus was on supporting the recovery of wreckage and investigating the cause.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of three respected and beloved members of the MRF-D family,” Sullivan said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families and with all involved,” Sullivan added.
President Joe Biden has also offered his condolences to their families.
“Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families of the Marines who lost their lives in this deadly crash,” Biden tweeted, referring to his wife Jill Biden. “We are praying for those who also suffered injuries.”
The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but during flight can tilt its propellers forward and cruise much faster like an airplane.
Before Sunday, there had been five fatal crashes of Marine Ospreys since 2012, causing a total of 16 deaths.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Eight U.S. Marines remained in a hospital in the Australian north coast city of Darwin on Monday after they were injured in a fiery crash of a tiltrotor aircraft that killed three of their colleagues on an island.
All 20 survivors were flown from Melville Island 80 kilometers (50 miles) south to Darwin within hours of the Marine V-22 Osprey crashing at 9:30 a.m. Sunday during a multinational training exercise, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said.
All were taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital, and 12 had been discharged by Monday, she said.
The first five Marines to arrive at the city’s main hospital were critically injured and one underwent emergency surgery.
Fyles said she would not detail the conditions of eight who remained in the hospital out of respect for them and their families.
“It’s ... a credit to everyone involved that we were able to get 20 patients from an extremely remote location on an island into our tertiary hospital within a matter of hours,” Fyles told reporters.
The Osprey that crashed was one of two that flew from Darwin to Melville on Sunday as part of Exercise Predators Run, which involves the militaries of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor.
All 23 Marines aboard the lost aircraft were temporarily based in Darwin as part of the Marine Corps’ annual troop rotation.
Around 150 U.S. Marines are currently based in Darwin and up to 2,500 rotate through the city every year. They are part of a realignment of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific that is broadly meant to face an increasingly assertive China.
The bodies of the three Marines remained at the crash site, where an exclusion zone would be maintained, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said.
The cause of the crash had yet to be explained and investigators would remain at the site for at least 10 days, Murphy said.
The Osprey, a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but during flight can tilt its propellers forward and cruise much faster like an airplane, crashed into tropical forest and burst into flame.
Before Sunday, there had been five fatal crashes of Marine Ospreys since 2012, causing a total of 16 deaths.
The latest was in June 2022, when five Marines died in a fiery crash in a remote part of California east of San Diego. A crash investigation report last month found that the tragedy was caused by a mechanical failure related to a clutch.
There had been 16 similar clutch problems with the Marine Ospreys in flight since 2012, the report found. But no problems have arisen since February when the Marine Corps began replacing a piece of equipment on the aircraft, the report said.
Emergency responders were surprised the death toll from Sunday's crash was not higher.
“For a chopper that crashes and catches fire, to have 20 Marines that are surviving, I think that’s an incredible outcome,” Murphy said.
Defense Minister Richard Marles was also greateful that the toll was not worse.
“It’s remarkable that in many ways, so many have survived,” Marles told Nine News television. “This remains a very tragic incident and the loss of those lives are keenly felt,” Marles added.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin paid tribute to dead Marines.
“These Marines served our country with courage and pride, and my thoughts and prayers are with their families today, with the other troops who were injured in the crash, and with the entire USMC family,” Austin tweeted.
The U.S. Embassy in Australia issued a statement offering condolences to the families and friends of the dead Marines and thanking Australian responders for their help.