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Marines Osprey Damaged
Associated Press | March 28, 2006

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. - The Marine Corps said Monday it was investigating an accident with an MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft that damaged its right wing and engine.
No one was injured, either on board the aircraft or on the ground at the air base at Jacksonville, the Corps said in a statement.
"The aircraft damage resulted from an inadvertent takeoff followed by a hard landing" during a test flight following maintenance on the Osprey, according to the statement.
The statement offered no further details. A base spokesman couldn't be reached by telephone.
The Osprey was assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204.
Earlier this year, the Corps said it would begin deploying the Osprey in combat zones within a year and activated a squadron of the aircraft, which are designed to replace Vietnam-era CH-46E twin rotor helicopters.
The aircraft takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like an airplane.
The aircraft program was halted for a review after crashes in 2000 that killed four Marines in North Carolina and 19 in Arizona. But the $19 billion program was restarted by the Pentagon last year.