It may be 11 years since a V-22 Osprey plunged to the earth in Marana, Ariz., killing its two pilots and the 17 other Marines aboard, but a Jacksonville military widow believes she may finally be close to setting the history books straight regarding the tragedy.
The doomed flight of April 8, 2000, began as a night training exercise near Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, with two V-22s conducting non-combat maneuvers. Though the aircraft was still in early stages of use by the military and by the crews aboard, the flight went smoothly, up until the point that the following Osprey, codenamed Nighthawk 72, attempted to land at the nearby Marana Airport. With the lead Osprey descending quickly from much higher than planned, the following aircraft found itself in rotor stall, its pilots apparently unable to control its final descent. Veering right, the Osprey crashed into the ground in a fiery explosion.
Though the event was an unthinkable tragedy for the loved ones of all aboard, another moment of horror was in store for the widows of the V-22’s pilots, Maj. Brooks Gruber and Lt. Col. John Brow, when results of an investigation into the incident were made public several months later. While the Judge Advocate General Manual Report was more nuanced, a press release from the Marine Corps summarizing the findings announced that a combination of human and other factors had caused the crash, with the chain of events leading to the Osprey’s fate involving deviations from the scheduled flight plan and the rapid rate of descent.
In the release, then-Marine commandant Gen. James L. Jones issued a statement backing the findings.
“The tragedy is that these were all good Marines joined in a challenging mission,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the pilots’ drive to accomplish that mission appears to have been the fatal factor.”
Immediately, media reports broadcast to the world that pilot error had caused the fatal crash, a conclusion that widows Connie Gruber and Trish Brow instantly and vehemently contested.
“It was a rude awakening for me, and I knew right then and there that whatever information released to the media to imply this accusation was false; and I intended from that day forward to do whatever necessary to protect my husband’s professional reputation and guarantee him the honor he and his comrades so deserved,” Gruber told The Daily News.
She appeared on 60 Minutes soon after the crash, saying that Maj. Gruber had been pulled into the role of test pilot, operating an aircraft about which much still was unknown. She has since reaffirmed her belief in a variety of media interviews that her husband was not to blame. In 2009, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who promised to assist Gruber after meeting her at a memorial service soon after the crash, introduced a House resolution absolving the pilots of guilt for the record and blaming the crash instead on Vortex Ring State, a stalled condition to which the Osprey was particularly prone and for which the pilots were not adequately trained.
While the resolution died in committee, new voices have surfaced in recent months to give credence to these claims. Between June and July, Jones received letters from each of the three Marine investigators who had been responsible for establishing findings from the Marana crash. For the cause, the reports were heartening.
Then-Lt. Col. Michael Morgan, the lead investigator, wrote to Jones that no ambiguity should remain in records of the incident.
“In my opinion ... John Brown and Brooks Gruber performed as model wingmen on this mission. They were doing exactly what is expected of wingmen on a tactical flight,” he wrote.
In summary, Morgan said he looked forward to the day when Defense officials accurately recognized the pilots’ sacrifice.
Then-Lt. Col. Ronald Radich wrote to say the crash had served to highlight the hazards of VRS, then a little-known phenomenon, even in the aviation community.
But for the sacrifice of the 19 Marines, he wrote, “the highly adverse effects of V-22 VRS would have continued to remain dominant ... For the price the crew and passengers paid to discover this, it would be morally wrong to place the blame on the pilots of Nighthawk 72.”
Phillip Stackhouse, then a captain, wrote to say that blame was never intended to be set at the feet of the aircraft’s pilots.
“For any record that reflects the mishap was a result of pilot error, it should be corrected,” he said. “For any publication that reflects the mishap was a result of pilot error, it should be corrected and recanted.”
Stackhouse, now a military defense attorney in Jacksonville, told The Daily News the point had been clear from the conclusion of the investigation.
“From my perspective, it was never my intent with the command investigation to place blame on the pilots with the mishap,” he said.
Though Navy Secretary Ray Mabus issued a clarification for Maj. Gruber’s file stating that “no single action by any single pilot would necessarily have caused the mishap; it was not pilot error,” Jones said the wording does not satisfy.
“The family would like one of two things: an amendment or addendum to the JAGMAN report or a public declaration from the commandant of the Marine Corps or secretary of the Navy stating that the two pilots were not at fault,” he said.
Jones is now working to gain support for a new legislative effort to establish the pilots’ innocence.
For Gruber, the new support may mean some light at the end of a decade-long tunnel for her, her 11-year-old daughter Brooke and the Brow family, as well as a chance to see the pilots’ legacy rightly honored.
“I’m very optimistic,” she said. “After all this time, it is time that it be corrected. We’re not going to give up at this point.
“We’ve been involved too long now to just let it go.”
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