US military aircraft with four on board crashes during NATO exercise in Norway: Officials

A US military aircraft with four members aboard crashed in Norway during an exercise conducted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a US army official informed under conditions of anonymity. On Friday, a Marine MV-22 Osprey went missing in between an extreme weather exercise. However, the cause of crash-landing has not been identified, the official said. Meanwhile, Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) North Norway flagged that the weather condition dragged the helicopter from the landing site.

Ground crews have been dispatched to rescue survivors of the crash. However, there has been no indication of life in the area around the wreck through air surveillance, Xinhua reported. Debris were discovered around the crash site near Gratadalen, Jan Esklid, press officer for the JRCC said.

US Army helicopter took part in NATO exercise

The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey was taking part in an 'Exercise File Response 22' amid extreme weather conditions, the US official said. In a statement II Marine Expeditionary Force confirmed the incident, saying "Norwegian civil authorities are leading the search and rescue efforts at the time. We are grateful for their efforts and will assist them ...in all manners." The twin-engine vertical take-off plane was on its way to Bodo. It went missing shortly after it took flight, failing to arrive at its planned destination.

The US Military described the exercise as Norway-led. The exercise, which began on March 14, was expected to run until April 1 and is "designed to enhance military capabilities and allied cooperation during a high-intensity war-fighting scenario in the challenging Arctic environment with rugged terrain and extremely cold weather," the US Marine Corps noted. The Cold Response exercise, dubbed as the largest since the cold war, involves over 30,000 military personnel, 220 aircraft and over 50 vessels from NATO members.

Military exercise planned before Russia-Ukraine war, NATO confirms

It is pertinent to mention that the massive military exercise comes at a time when NATO is at a stifle with Russia. Infuriated over Ukraine's willingness to join the international military bloc (among many other reasons), Moscow launched a military invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbour on February 24. However, NATO has maintained a clear stand of not participating in the war. In the context of its ongoing exercise, NATO also confirmed that it was "long-planned" and was announced eight months ago. "It is not linked to Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine," the military alliance said, adding that, "NATO is responding (to Russia) with prevention and non-escalatory measures."  

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