A 21-year-old man who had served in the Marine Corps for less than three years was among the three US service personnel who died in a military plane crash in the Tiwi Islands on Sunday.
Corporal Spencer R Collart, 21, Captain Eleanor V LeBeau, 29, and Major Tobin J Lewis, 37, were named as the three crash victims on Tuesday morning by US Marine Rotational Force Darwin.
Their bodies were expected to be recovered from the crash site on Tuesday.
Their MV-22B Osprey went down on Melville Island, 80km north of Darwin, at about 9.30am on Sunday, local time, with 23 people on board. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, the statement said.
Three marines remain in hospital in Darwin, with one in intensive care in a critical condition. Seventeen others injured in the crash have been treated in hospital for minor injuries and discharged.
Collart enlisted in the Marine Corps in late 2021 and was promoted to corporal earlier this year. He served in Pensacola and Jacksonville before arriving at the Hawaii base in Kaneohe Bay.
LeBeau joined the Marine Corps in August 2018 and was promoted to Captain in March this year, serving in Pensacola, Corpus Christi and Jacksonville before her arrival in Hawaii.
Lewis had been active in the Marine Corps since 2008 and served as major since 2018. The pilot had served in America and Japan and received several medals and deployment ribbons, including the Navy and Marine Corps achievement medal.
The US president, Joe Biden, and the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, extended their condolences to the families of those who were killed after the crash.
Extensive investigations into the accident are under way, with Northern Territory police, fire and emergency services working closely with the Australian Defence Force and the US Marine Corps. An exclusion zone remains in place around the crash site in the remote Tiwi Islands.
Brendan Sullivan, commanding officer of Darwin’s Marine Rotational Force, said the community was deeply saddened by the loss of three “respected and beloved members” of the force’s family.
“Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families and with all involved,” he said. “At present, we remain focused on required support to the ongoing recovery and investigative efforts.”
The defence minister, Richard Marles, said the relatively low number of fatalities was “remarkable” and “in no small part due to the assistance that was able to be provided by those who [were] on the scene almost immediately”.
“There will be a number of investigations that will be triggered by virtue of this accident and that process is already under way,” he told ABC radio.
The NT police commissioner, Michael Murphy, told the ABC that an airstrip within 2km of the crash site had helped emergency services reach the scene and triage the injured.
The acting assistant commissioner and incident controller, Matthew Hollamby, said NT police were committed to providing a thorough investigation into the matter.
“We are in the recovery phase and working closely with NT Fire and Rescue Service to assist us with a safe and respectful recovery operation of the three deceased US marines.”
Leaders from Australia and the US have extended their sympathies after the accident. Albanese offered his “deepest condolences” to the entire US armed forces.
“Australian and US personnel have stood shoulder to shoulder for more than a century,” he said. “Our alliance is built upon these enduring links and our shared values.
“This incident is a reminder of the significance of the service undertaken by our personnel and those of our partner nations.”
He said Australia would continue to provide assistance to “our friends” for as long as required.
The chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, said that Australian and US military forces “share a deep bond developed through our shared history of serving together and supporting one another”.
“Our thoughts are with the families, the injured, their mates and the entire military community impacted by this terribly sad incident. We will continue to assist our friends as needed through this extremely difficult time.”
He was joined by Biden, who said on social media that he and his wife, Jill, were sending their “deepest condolences to the families of the marines who lost their lives in this deadly crash”, adding that the couple were praying for those who were injured.
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, said in a social media post that America had “tragically lost service members during a training exercise in Australia overnight” and that those “marines served our country with courage and pride”.
The incident has again raised questions over the safety of the tilt-rotor aircraft.
In March 2022, a V-22 Osprey crashed in Norway during a Nato exercise, killing all four personnel on board. Three months later, another V-22 Osprey crashed in California, killing all five US marines on board.
In 2016, the US military grounded its fleet of Osprey aircraft in Japan after one crash-landed in the sea near Okinawa.
