Two U.S. generals have publicly disagreed over the cause of a fatal aircraft accident in Afghanistan that killed four people.

 

Regarding the crash of a CV-22 Osprey on April 9, 2010, Brigadier General Donald Harvel, president of the accident investigation board, said engine problems brought down the aircraft while it was landing. But Lieutenant General Kurt Cichowski, Harvel’s superior, insisted human error caused the accident.

 

Harvel, now retired, added that he was pushed to offer a different explanation. “There was absolutely a lot of pressure to change my report,” he told the Air Force Times. “My heart and brain said it was not pilot error. I stuck with what I thought was the truth.”

 

Air Force Special Operations Command wanted Harvel to claim pilot error because the command didn’t want to raise old doubts about the safety of the Osprey program, which had three fatal crashes in its early stages during the 1990s. The Osprey is manufactured by Bell Helicopter and Boeing Rotorcraft Systems.

 

No one may ever really know the cause of the accident because the men onboard who survived destroyed the rest of the Osprey, including the flight recorder, to keep it from falling into enemy hands.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Generals Clash on Cause of April Osprey Crash (by Bruce Rolfsen, Air Force Times)

Air Force Shoots Down Investigation Into Deadly Crash (by David Axe, Danger Room)