A 34-year-old service member from Riverside was identified Tuesday as one of eight crew members who died when their Osprey military aircraft crashed last week off the coast of Japan.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Luke A. Unrath, 34, of Riverside, was a CV-22 pilot and flight commander assigned to the 21st Special Operations Squadron, 353rd Special Operations Wing at Yokota Air Base in Japan.
The CV-22B Osprey crashed on Nov. 29 during a training mission.
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On Monday, the Air Force said six of the eight crew members' remains had been located. Three of those have been recovered. The two lost crew members were unlikely to have survived and the search for their remains was continuing, the Air Force said Tuesday.
"The depth of sorrow is immeasurable," Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, who heads Air Force Special Operations Command, said in a statement. "The honorable service of these eight airmen to this great nation will never be forgotten, as they are now among the giants who shape our history."
Ospreys have had a number of crashes, including in Japan, where they are used at U.S. and Japanese military bases, and the latest accident has rekindled safety concerns. The U.S.-made Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster, like an airplane, during flight.
Japan has suspended all flights of its own fleet of 14 Ospreys. Japanese officials say they have asked the U.S. military to resume Osprey flights only after ensuring their safety. The Pentagon said no such formal request has been made and that the U.S. military is continuing to fly 24 MV-22s, the Marine version of Ospreys, deployed on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
On Sunday, pieces of wreckage that Japan’s coast guard and local fishing boats have collected were handed over to the U.S. military for examination, coast guard officials said. Japan’s military said debris it has collected would also be handed over to the U.S.
