By Geoff Fein
The Navy yesterday expected inspection of Marine Corps and Air Force V-22 Ospreys to be completed shortly, less than a week after loose bolts discovered in a part that controls the proprotor forced a temporary grounding of the fleet.
“Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) issued a temporary grounding bulletin on all CV-22 and MV-22 Ospreys until the aircraft have been inspected for potential loose bolts in a component that controls the proprotors. The temporary grounding is a precaution following the detection of several loose bolts in an aircraft deployed in Iraq,” Mike Welding, V-22 program office spokesman, said. “The loose bolts were discovered while the aircraft was on the ground and did not cause an in-flight incident.”
The issue was first discovered March 21, he told Defense Daily.
As of yesterday afternoon, 77 of the 84 V-22s in service in both the Marine Corps and Air Force had been inspected. Of those, Welding said four were so far found to have problems with loose bolts.
“[Four] were repaired and returned to flight status,” he said yesterday. “We expect the inspections to be done today.”
Repairs take about two days to complete, Welding added.
“The grounding bulletin spells out new inspection procedures on certain components in the proprotor assembly,” Welding said. “All aircraft that pass the inspection will immediately return to normal flight status. Any aircraft found with loose bolts will receive replacement parts and be returned to flight.”
The V-22 tiltrotor Osprey is built by a Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT]-Boeing [BA] team.
Whether the grounding of the Marine Corps V-22s in Iraq impacted operations there, is unknown. The Marine Corps did not respond to a question from Defense Daily by yesterday’s deadline.