U.S. military grounds entire fleet of Ospery aircraft after mishap in Japan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military said Wednesday that it is grounding its entire fleet of V-22 Osprey aircraft one week after an Air Force CV-22 crashed off the coast of Japan, killing eight U.S. airmen onboard.

The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) said in a statement that its commander, Tony Bauernfeind, directed an operational standdown to "mitigate risk while the investigation continues" into the Nov. 29 crash of a CV-22 Osprey off the coast of Yakushima, an island in southern Japan, that killed all the eight crew members, all of them servicemen of AFSOC.

"Preliminary investigation information indicates a potential material failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time," the statement said.