Air Force special ops Osprey stuck in Norway wilderness after mishap
By Rachel S. Cohen
A CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft belonging to the U.S. Air Force has been stranded at a Norwegian nature preserve after recently suffering a mechanical failure in flight, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command confirmed.
The Osprey has sat among the ferns and salamanders of the High North since Aug. 12, when the tiltrotor system’s erratic clutch forced airmen to make an emergency landing at the Stongodden preserve on the island of Senja in Troms, Norway.
The area’s tricky terrain and weather now create a confounding rescue mission even for special ops airmen, who are trained to extract troops from remote locations around the world.
“These things never seem to happen at airfields,” AFSOC boss Lt. Gen. Jim Slife lamented during a discussion hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association. “They always seem to happen in Norwegian nature preserves above the Arctic Circle at the onset of winter.”
A photo provided by the Norwegian Armed Forces shows the CV-22 at rest on a lush green plateau on the edge of the Norwegian Sea.
The Norwegian Armed Forces have together with the environmental protection office at the County Governor made a plan to retrieve the Osprey from the nature reserve, in dialogue with the U.S. Air Force.
Lt. Col. Eivind Byre, a spokesperson for Norway’s military, said that the U.S. and Norwegian troops worked with the environmental protection office in Norway’s northernmost county on a plan to retrieve the Osprey.
Norwegians plan to build a small wooden road that will protect vulnerable wildlife at the reserve while they shimmy the aircraft closer to shore. Then a boat equipped with a massive crane will get as close to the Osprey as possible without running aground in shallow water, pick up the plane and move it elsewhere for repairs.
“The aircraft is damaged but the extent is unknown,” AFSOC spokesperson Lt. Col. Becky Heyse said. “With other similar incidents, the gearbox had to be replaced, and, in some instances, the engine as well.”
Officials are now waiting for the crane boat to arrive, Byre said.
“Weather and wind in Norway this time of the year can change quite quickly, and is an important factor to consider,” Byre said. “Stongodden is located quite remotely.”
The 7th Special Operations Squadron at RAF Mildenhall in England owns the stuck CV-22, according to the Dutch Aviation Society’s website, Scramble. It’s unclear what mission the Air Force crew was tasked with at the time of the incident, or what happened to them after they landed the Osprey.
Multiple recent clutch malfunctions, including the incident in Norway, led the Air Force to temporarily ground the 52-titlrotor fleet from Aug. 16 to Sept. 2. Service officials have discussed a way forward with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, which also fly V-22 variants.
“We’re in the midst of a recovery process to get that airplane to a place where we can swap out the engines and the gearboxes and all the things that need to be replaced. That’s underway right now,” Slife said.
The Air Force’s Ospreys returned to flight Sept. 2 without a fix in place. It could take the V-22 Joint Program Office up to three years to deliver hardware to resolve the problem.
In the meantime, AFSOC has introduced flight restrictions to try to limit situations that could cause propulsion systems to falter. That includes momentarily pausing before ramping up to full power during takeoff, and opting to depart from runways instead of helicopter-style vertical takeoffs.
* * * * *
Photo caption: This CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft owned by Air Force Special Operations Command made an emergency landing at a nature reserve in northern Norway when its clutch malfunctioned. U.S. and Norwegian officials are devising a plan to remove the aircraft from its island in the High North. (Norwegian Armed Forces)
