Video of 2017 US Osprey crash off Qld emerges online

Service personnel run for their lives as a US military aircraft spins out of control attempting to land on a warship off Queensland. SEE VIDEO

Dramatic footage has emerged of a military training accident that killed three US servicemen off the Queensland coast in 2017.

Three marines died during exercises when their MV-22 Osprey aircraft crashed as it was landing on the deck of the USS Green Bay off Shoalwater Bay, north of Rockhampton, in August 2017.

It had been participating in exercises off the Queensland coast a month after Exercise Talisman Sabre, a huge annual joint war game exercise between Australian and US forces.

Co-pilot Lt Benjamin Robert Cross, 26, Cpl Nathan Ordway, 26, and PFC Ruben Velasco, 19, perished in the accident, and several more were injured, some seriously.

Another 23 marines who were on board the Osprey were rescued.

The MV-22 Osprey seconds before it crashes into the ocean

In the new footage, which appeared online at the weekend, the Osprey can be seen on final approach, but as it nears the deck it suddenly lists to its port side.

Its left engine nacelle smashes into the deck and personnel on the ship run for cover, before the aircraft disappears below the deck and crashes into the ocean.

The official report into the incident found no human error, rather than “downwash” was an issue, and flagged changes to the amount of weight an Osprey may carry when landing on a ship at sea.

The highly manoeuvrable aircraft, which can fly like a plane and hover like a helicopter, have been branded death traps by some in the military, with more than 50 casualties in more than 20 accidents since it entered US service in 1991.

Originally published as Video of 2017 US Osprey crash off Qld emerges online