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Osprey sees first action in search and rescue

The Air Force’s CV-22 Osprey has been pressed into real action for the first time as part of a search-and-rescue mission.

One of the four tilt-rotor aircraft belonging to the 58th Special Operations Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., was part of team of four aircraft searching for survivors of an Oct. 4 plane crash.

An Arizona-based Beechcraft King Air plane traveling to San Luis Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, Colo., was reported missing Oct. 5. Civilian authorities contacted the military for help that morning, and the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., notified officials at Kirtland, the base closest to the suspected crash area.

Kirtland officials dispatched two HH-60G helicopters, a MC-130P for aerial refueling and the CV-22.

“We knew our piece of this was to get up there as quickly as we could and find the crash site,” said Capt. Scott Gwin, the aircraft commander on the CV-22. “Then our goal was to trans-load the passengers. We could have trans-loaded from anywhere and gone straight to the trauma center.”

Battling high winds and a low cloud ceiling, the three rotary aircraft searched a peak in the San Juan Mountains where radar data suggested the downed plane would be. Sensor operators on the MC-130P eventually located the crash site, and the Osprey crew went to the coordinates to visually check for survivors, of which there were none. All three passengers of the medical flight died in the crash.

The Osprey crew didn’t get to test their aircraft’s rescue capabilities, then, but did claim the distinction of being the first to put an Air Force Osprey into non-training operation.

Ten Marine Ospreys, MV-22s, are currently on their way to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, marking the first deployment for the tilt-rotors.

Officials at the AFRCC did not immediately reply to requests for comment on whether all Air Force Ospreys were ready for rescue taskings.