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3 US Marines dead after aircraft crashes during drills in Australia
Five Marines had been rescued from the crash site and flown to a hospital in Darwin in a 'serious condition'
- PUBLISHED: Sun 27 Aug 2023, 11:58 AM
- By:
- AP
Three US Marines died 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 "serious condition", the US officials said, while Australian police said they were triaging the rest of the injured crew at the scene.
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"There were a total of 23 personnel on board," US military officials said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said only Americans were injured when the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed during Exercise Predators Run, which involves the militaries of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor.
“The initial reports suggest that the incident involves just US defence force personnel,” Albanese said.
“Our focus as a government and as the department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time,” he added.
Melville is part of the Tiwi Islands, which along with Darwin are the focus of the exercise that involves 2,500 troops.
The Osprey that crashed was one of two that had flown from Darwin to Melville on Sunday, Murphy said.
Around 150 US Marines are currently based in Darwin and up to 2,500 rotate through the city every year.
The US military was also taking part in a mulitnation military exercise in July when four Australia personnel were killed in an army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash off the northeast Australian coast.