Search suspended for missing three

A US MARINE crew is believed to have botched the landing of a crash-prone Osprey aircraft, smashing into the deck of a transport ship and bucking into the ocean off the coast of Central Queensland.

Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne confirmed last night that HMAS Melville, a specialist sonar ship, and a crew of Australian Navy divers had been dispatched to assist US salvage operations and to search for the bodies of three passengers who are missing and presumed dead.

Family members believed one of the missing men was Osprey crew chief Corporal Nathan Ordway from Wichita, Kansas.

Cpl. Ordway’s sister Taylor asked people to “please pray for my brother” on the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Facebook page yesterday.

The crash occurred on Saturday afternoon. The Marine unit, usually based in Okinawa, Japan, had lingered off the coast of the Shoalwater Bay to continue training drills for almost two weeks since the official end of Exercise Talisman Sabre.

It’s understood the controversial V-22 Osprey, nicknamed the “widow-maker” was flying from the amphibious assault ship the USS Bonhomme Richard to the transport dock ship the USS Green Bay.

By midday yesterday, search and rescue efforts were suspended and the US said operations had shifted to “a recovery” effort focused on an area about 25 nautical miles off the coast, between Cape Manifold and Cape Clinton, north of Yeppoon.