（以下略訳、本文は略訳の後に続きます）
米国、アリゾナ州、マラナのアヴラ ヴァレー空港近くで
４月８日、午後８時頃おきた夜間訓練中の
オスプリの墜落事故で１９人の海兵隊員が死亡しましたが、
この事故に関してコーエン国防省長官は次のように
述べています。
「この事故は我々の訓練任務がいかに危険であるか
示している。夜間視覚機能装置で訓練する場合、
飛行士たちに特別な負担が加わることになるからだ。」
地元の人たちの話によりますと、オスプリは地上に墜落
する前に、火の玉となって爆発したのだそうです。
１８ヵ月か２４ヵ月以内には完全実用配備されることに
なっているオスプリですが、今回の事故は、この
完全実用配備前の最終評価を行っていた時に起きました。
ヘリコプター式の作動から飛行機型に移る時点で事故が
おきたかどうかはまだ確認されていません。
オスプリの危険性について、ますます情報を広める
必要がありそうです（訳者）。
Sunday April 9 9:59 AM ET
All 19 Dead in U.S. Marine Plane Crash
PHOENIX, Ariz. (Reuters) - A Marine V22 Osprey, which takes off like
a
helicopter and flies like a plane, has crashed during a training mission
in
Arizona, killing all 19 troops aboard, U.S. military officials said.
The Osprey, with four crew members and 15 other Marines on board, crashed
at
about 8 p.m. PDT on Saturday (0300 GMT on Sunday) near Avra Valley
Airport
in the desert town of Marana, Arizona, said Pentagon spokesman Ken
Bacon.
The airport is about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Tucson, Arizona.
Defense Secretary William Cohen said that the Pentagon did not yet
know what
caused the crash.
``This is really hard to take in terms of 19 Marines dying on a training
mission like this,'' added Cohen while on a plane from Kuwait to Saudi
Arabia. ``It only points out how dangerous our training missions are,
when
we train with night vision capability equipment and that additional
burden
upon those who are flying the aircraft.''
Bacon, who is travelling with Cohen, said the Marines were conducting
training exercises when the crash occurred.
Marana residents told television news crews that the plane burst into
a ball
of flames before hitting the ground. Television pictures on CNN showed
smoke
rising from a smoldering mass of metal lit up by beams of light from
emergency vehicles.
Military officials could not confirm, however, whether the plane had
become
an airborne fireball before it crashed.
The Osprey, under development for more than a decade, can take off
and land
like a helicopter using rotors before converting to fixed-wing operation
that enables it to fly like a plane.
The Osprey is built by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.
Capt. Rob Winchester, a U.S. Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon,
said
early on Sunday that the Marines were conducting final evaluations
of the
hybrid Osprey. It was not known whether the crash occurred while the
plane
was in transition from rotor-powered to fixed-wing flight, he said.
``Our concern goes out to the members of the families of those Marines
on
board,'' said Winchester.
The Osprey is due to be placed on full operational status in 18 to
24
months, Winchester said. It is designed to replace the helicopter as
a means
of getting U.S. troops in and out of hot spots quickly and in conducting
civilian rescue operations.
The White House released a statement in which President Clinton underscored
the dangers those in the military face even during peacetime.
``This terrible loss of life is a reminder of how so many men and women
in
the nation's military put their lives at risk, each and every day,
so that
we might be a free people, and the cause of peace can be advanced throughout
the world.''
A second Osprey on the training mission was not involved in the accident.
Both planes were stationed at a Marine Corps air base in Yuma, Arizona,
although the troops who perished were from around the United States,
officials said.
No one on the ground was injured when the plane went down in fair weather.
There was no live ordnance on board the plane, a Marine spokesman told
Reuters.
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安倍 陽子
rentai@labyrinth.net
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