Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, left, and Maj. Tobin J. Lewis were piloting an MV-22B Osprey when it crashed in northern Australia on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, killing them and Cpl. Spencer R. Collart. (U.S. Marine Corps)
A pair of officers killed in an MV-22B Osprey crash in northern Australia were flying the tiltrotor aircraft when it went down Sunday morning, according to Marine Rotational Force — Darwin.
“Both Maj. Tobin J. Lewis and Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau were piloting the aircraft during the incident,” rotational force spokesman Maj. Matthew Wolf said in an email Tuesday evening to clarify the accident’s details.
The Osprey, assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 363 from Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, went down with 23 aboard at 9:30 a.m. on Melville Island, north of Darwin in the Northern Territory.
The officers who died were both pilots; Lewis was the squadron’s executive officer, Wolf said. Some reports had wrongly stated that LeBeau was the sole pilot, he said.
The remains of the three Marines who died in the crash, Lewis, 37, of Jefferson, Colo.; LeBeau, 29, of Belleville, Ill.; and crew chief Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, 21, of Arlington, Va., arrived in Darwin at approximately 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the rotational force said in a statement that evening.
“One Marine remains in critical condition and has been transferred to The Alfred Centre hospital in Melbourne,” the statement said. “Two Marines remain in Royal Darwin Hospital in stable condition.”
Then-Marine Corps Capt. Tobin Lewis discusses an MV-22 Osprey mishap in the Coral Sea, Aug. 7, 2017. (Sarah Villegas/U.S. Navy)
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Spencer Collart, 21, of Arlington, Va. (U.S. Marine Corps)
U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Eleanor LeBeau, 29, of Belleville, Ill. (U.S. Marine Corps)
U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Tobin Lewis, 37, of Jefferson, Colo. (U.S. Marine Corps)
The crash is the fourth fatal incident involving Marine Corps Ospreys since August 2017, when three Marines died after their tiltrotor crashed into Shoalwater Bay, Australia, during the Talisman Saber exercise.
In March 2022, four Marines died in Norway due to pilot error, according to a Marine accident investigation.
In June 2022, five Marines died when their Osprey went down in Southern California. The Corps blamed that incident on a faulty clutch, a problem the Marines, Navy and Air Force linked to the Osprey.
The cause of Sunday’s crash remains under investigation, the rotational force said in its statement.
