An Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22 Osprey out of Hurlburt Field, Fl., went down last night in the nearby Eglin training range, injuring all five airmen on board, according to the Air Force.
The service isn't saying much about the crash, other than it happened around 6:45 pm yesterday and that three of the airmen were hurt badly enough to warrant being flown by helicopter to local hospitals while the other two were taken via ambulance.
This is the second loss of one of the Air Force's special operations-variant CV-22s in the last two years. A special ops variant Osprey went down in Afghanistan in April 2010 -- an incident the Air Force officially blamed on pilot error despite indications than an engine may have lost power and the fact that tiltrotor's flight information recorder was never recovered by accident investigators.
Two months ago, a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashed in Morocco, killing two Marines during Exercise African Lion.
Here's an excerpt from NorthWest Florida News' report on the latest crash:
A fire was put out on the plane, according to Holley-Navarre Fire District Chief Ron Norton. Units with Holley-Navarre and Florosa Fire were called to assist when the plane went down in a heavily wooded area off of Range Road."When we got there we were told to standby," Norton said. "They had already taken care of the patients and were waiting for water supply to put out the hot spots that remained on the plane."
Eglin and Hurlburt Fire were also on scene.
