In the News

PITTSFIELD — One day after attending the funeral Mass for Pittsfield-born Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, a group of U.S. lawmakers representing the commonwealth questioned the safety of the military’s V-22 Osprey.

Galliher, 24 and the father of two sons, was killed when an Osprey V-22 carrying eight crewmembers crashed in the ocean off the coast of Japan on Nov. 29. All were killed.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Rep. Richard Neal, who represent Galliher’s Berkshire County home, wrote Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III Thursday. The letter was also sent to other top officials, including Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who is also a Pittsfield native.

“No other U.S. service member should be injured or perish in a V-22 Osprey accident or mishap,” the letter says. “We urge the Defense Department, and the Departments of the Air Force and the Navy to ensure that the V-22 Osprey is safe to fly before allowing servicemembers from across the Commonwealth and the United States back on board.”

In an interview Thursday, Neal, D-Springfield, said “We want a thorough investigation as to the safety of the aircraft.”

Neal said he, Warren and Markey waited until after the funeral to raise concerns publicly out of respect.

“I still think that all of us are in a period of grieving for the loss of this very young life,” Neal said.

Neal said Galliher’s father approached him with questions about the Osprey’s safety.

The congressman said he has also discussed the Osprey crash with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel.

“The two of us talked a lot about it over a couple of days,” Neal said.

A preliminary investigation of the November incident indicated something went wrong with the aircraft and the crash was not caused by human error.

Witnesses told Japanese media that they saw the aircraft going down with an engine on fire.

The letter reminds the Pentagon that since the V-22 Osprey’s initial development and entry into service in 2007, it has been involved in 14 crashes that caused 54 deaths. In just the last two years, 13 servicemembers have died in multiple incidents involving the aircraft.

That includes another servicemember from Massachusetts.

On March 18, 2023, Marine Corps Capt. Ross A. Reynolds, an Osprey pilot and native of Leominster, died in a crash near Bodø, Norway on a training mission.

“There certainly have been a series of operational problems that need to be reviewed,” Neal said.

But concerns about the aircraft’s safety, while public, seemingly gained little traction as an issue before this most recent crash.

The Pentagon grounded its fleet of nearly 500 Osprey aircraft following the crash.

Neal, Markey and Warren, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, all asked a series of questions demanding a written response by the end of January 2024. The lawmakers asked the Department of Defense the status of its investigations into recent Osprey crashes and if there were any warning signs before the November flight that killed Galliher. They also asked if the aircraft’s manufacturers had ever expressed concerns over the vehicle’s safety.

“The CV-22B Osprey is a key platform in the implementation of the Pacific Air Force’s AgileCombat Employment concept across the Indo-Pacific’s vast distances. What other aircraft platforms can be used in lieu of the V-22 Osprey?” the lawmakers wrote.