Details in a report recently obtained via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act suggest the U.S. Marine Corps misled the public about an incident involving one of its Osprey aircraft in 2014.
The investigation, released by the Naval Safety Center, Virginia, describes a mishap on June 26, 2014, in which a MV-22B Osprey aircraft was struck by lightning while flying from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to its home base at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa.
The strike, which occurred over the city of Kobayashi, Miyazaki Prefecture, burned the aircraft's propeller blades and caused multiple failures to its onboard systems. None of the three crew members on board was injured and the aircraft was able to continue its flight to Futenma.