Osprey Papers Not Altered, Inquiry Finds

WASHINGTON —  A Pentagon investigation found no evidence to back up allegations that Marines altered records on the crash more than two years ago of a V-22 Osprey aircraft.

The Defense Department’s inspector general was looking into half a dozen specific charges that information was omitted or removed from reports concerning testing--and on the April 2000 crash in Arizona--of the aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a conventional airplane.

“The ... investigation found no evidence to support any of the allegations,” Acting Inspector General Charles W. Beardall said in a report dated Aug. 19 and only released Thursday when requested by Associated Press.

The allegations were made by a commander who earlier had been reprimanded for having knowledge of the doctoring of other Osprey records.

The reviews of the April 8, 2000, crash of the Osprey that killed 19 Marines concluded that human error caused the wreck at a Marana, Ariz., airport. The tilt-rotor craft has been plagued by equipment problems and was grounded after a December 2000 crash killed four more Marines.

Allegations of irregularities in records were made in a December 2001 letter to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James L. Jones from Lt. Col. Odin F. Leberman, a former commanding officer who had been reprimanded in connection with the falsification more than a year earlier of Osprey records.

The Marine Corps wants the aircraft, which is still in testing, to replace aging helicopters such as the CH-46 Sea Knight to transport troops and cargo.