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Australian Navy Divers Work To Recover Crashed Marine Corps Osprey

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Jacob Bojesson
August 7, 2017 8:27 AM ET

The Australian Navy has located the U.S. military aircraft that crashed off the country’s northeast coast Saturday, leaving three Marines presumed dead.

Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne released a statement Monday confirming that the MV-22 Osprey had been located shortly after the search began. Twenty-three personnel were rescued after the crash and three remain missing.

“Royal Australian Navy survey ship Melville arrived in Shoalwater Bay overnight,” Payne said in the statement. “Shortly after commencing survey operations in the area, the submerged aircraft was located.”

The aircraft was on regular operations at the time of the crash after taking off from the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) amphibious assault ship.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps suspended search and rescue operations Sunday for the three missing Marines and transitioned to recovery efforts, which could go on for several months.

“I want to thank the Australian Defence Force, and the crew of the HMAS Melville in particular, for their assistance in the search and recovery effort of our MV-22 that went down off the coast of Australia,” Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, Commanding General, III Marine Expeditionary Force‎, said in a press release Monday. “They volunteered their help before we could even ask, demonstrating their friendship and value as international partners.”

Osprey crew chief Cpl. Nathan Ordway and First Lt. Benjamin Robert Cross have been named as two of three missing Marines.

“We would also like to say the other family members that are going through this that received the same message that we did that are going through what we’re going through right now, you’re in our thoughts and prayers as well and our hearts,” Robert Cross, the brother of Ben Cross, told WGME.

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