A CV-22B Osprey arrives at Yokota Air Base, Japan, April 5, 2018. (Stars and Stripes)
A U.S. Navy salvage ship recovered the vast majority of the Air Force CV-22 Osprey that crashed off the coast of Japan in November, including equipment necessary for further investigation, according to the Air Force.
The USNS Salvor delivered the wreckage to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, where it will be “inspected as part of the ongoing investigations,” Air Force Special Operations Command spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday.
The Salvor, a Military Sealift Command rescue-and-salvage ship, joined recovery efforts near Yakushima, an island just south of Kyushu, on Dec. 23 alongside Japanese and civilian crews.
“Critical equipment identified by investigation officials has been recovered, including the Voice and Data Recorder, often called the black box. The equipment will be transported to laboratories for data retrieval with follow analysis of the data at AFSOC,” she wrote.
The analysis process is expected to take several weeks, Heyse said.
The wreckage was raised Dec. 27 from the underwater crash site south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, and arrived at the base on Saturday, according to a Sunday report by Japan Today that cited an anonymous source in the Iwakuni city government.
Air Force Special Operations Command, headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla., did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the dates on Thursday afternoon.
The delivery of wreckage and equipment marks a significant milestone for the recovery operation and investigation underway since the Osprey went down Nov. 29.
Maj. Eric Spendlove, 36, of St. George, Utah, was a flight surgeon and medical operations flight commander. (U.S. Air Force)
The tiltrotor aircraft — callsign Gundam 22 — crashed on a routine training mission while en route from MCAS Iwakuni near Hiroshima to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, killing all eight crewmembers.
The remains of Staff Sgt. Jake Galliher, 24, of Pittsfield, Mass.; Maj. Luke Unrath, 34, of Riverside, Calif.; Tech Sgt. Zachary Lavoy, 33, of Oviedo, Fla.; Capt. Terrell Brayman, 32, of Pittsford, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. Jake Turnage, 25, of Kennesaw, Ga.; Senior Airman Brian Johnson, 32, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio; and Maj. Jeff Hoernemann, 32, of Andover, Minn., were recovered between Nov. 29 and Dec. 10.
The body of Maj. Eric Spendlove, 36, of St. George, Utah, is still unaccounted for, but the search is still underway, Heyse said in the Thursday email.
Spendlove’s family remembered him as “kind of a hometown boy” who always “liked to keep to himself,” his brother-in-law Tyler Murset told the St. George News last month.
Spendlove and his wife, Chelsea Spendlove, have four children, the report said.
Born in California, Spendlove moved to St. George at 13 and later majored in biology at Utah Tech University; he went to medical school at the University of Pikeville in Kentucky, part of which was funded by the Air Force, according to the article.
“He was willing to serve his country and was looking to offset some of his medical school expenses,” Murset said, according to the St. George News. “He was a family man. A man of faith. A man of God. A man of his country. Everything he did was for the benefit of his family and country.”
