![](\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/08\/27112343bbfba93.jpg?r=112926\")
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Three US Marines died on Sunday after an Osprey aircraft crashed on a remote tropical island north of Australia during war games, US military officials said.<\/p>\n
Five Marines had been rescued from the crash site and flown to a hospital in Darwin in a \u201cserious condition\u201d, the US officials said, while Australian police said they were triaging the rest of the injured crew at the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a total of 23 personnel on board,\u201d US military officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree have been confirmed deceased while five others were transported to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rescue efforts were complicated by the location of the crash \u2014 the remote and sparsely populated Melville Island about 60 kilometres north of the Australian mainland.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecovery efforts are ongoing,\u201d US officials said, adding that an investigation into the cause of the incident had been launched.<\/p>\n
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the incident as \u201ctragic\u201d and \u201cregrettable\u201d but stressed that authorities were still trying to piece together what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that any information that is provided is absolutely accurate,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
The Osprey \u2014 a mix between a helicopter and a plane \u2014 was taking part in the Predators Run exercises, a joint series of warfighting drills involving thousands of soldiers from the US and Australia, as well as other militaries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.<\/p>\n
Northern Australia has become an increasingly important staging ground for the US military in recent years, as Washington and Canberra work together to counter China\u2019s growing clout in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
The Osprey aircraft has a troubled history, blighted by a string of fatal crashes over the years.<\/p>\n
Four US Marines were killed in Norway last year when their V-22B Osprey aircraft went down during Nato training exercises.<\/p>\n
Three Marines were killed in 2017 when an Osprey crashed after clipping the back of a transport ship while trying to land at sea off Australia\u2019s north coast.<\/p>\n
And 19 Marines died in 2000 when their Osprey crashed during drills in Arizona.<\/p>\n
The US Army earlier this year temporarily grounded all pilots who were not involved in critical missions, forcing them to complete further training after a series of safety incidents.<\/p>\n
Ospreys are rapidly quick tilt-rotor aircraft that combine the features of both helicopters and turboprop planes, according to the US Air Force.<\/p>\n
The hybrid aircraft has two swivelling engines positioned on fixed wingtips that allow it to land and take off vertically, but also travel much faster than a conventional helicopter.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s incident follows a fatal training crash last month, in which four Australians died when their Taipan helicopter plunged into the sea during a series of multinational war games in Queensland.<\/p>\n
The Taipan had been taking part in the large-scale Talisman Sabre exercise, which brought together 30,000 military personnel from Australia, the United States and several other nations.<\/p>\n
It crashed near the Whitsunday Islands while taking part in a nighttime operation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three US Marines died on Sunday after an Osprey aircraft crashed on a remote tropical island north of Australia during war games, US military officials said. Five Marines had been rescued from the crash site and flown to a hospital in Darwin in a \u201cserious condition\u201d, the US officials said, while Australian police said they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/08\/27112343bbfba93.jpg?r=112926","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t