
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 19, 1993                   TAG: 9305190282
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

EXPERIMENTAL-AIRCRAFT CRASH BLAMED ON LEAK

A flammable fluid leak, possibly caused by an improperly installed oil seal, was the chief cause of the crash last summer of a V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft that claimed seven lives, the Navy said Tuesday.

The conclusion came in the Navy's final report on the crash in the Potomac River near the Marine base at Quantico, Va.

The Navy cited mechanical failures it said began with the leak of a fluid that set off a flash fire in the right engine and wrecked the experimental aircraft's drive shaft. - Associated Press

by CNB