US military lifts grounding order on V-22 Osprey 3 months after fatal crash in Japan [Video]

The U.S. military has lifted its flight ban on V-22 Osprey aircraft after a deadly crash in Japan killed eight service members last fall, paving the way for the tilt rotorcraft to fly again for the first time in three months.

The decision comes even as the investigation into that crash and a separate deadly accident in Australia are still under way.

“I have high confidence that the protocols we’re putting in place will avoid a catastrophic event like this happening again in the future,” said Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, whose members died in the crash.

Bauernfeind and other senior military officials told reporters this week that the November crash in Japan was caused by a “materiel failure” that they believe can be addressed with additional training and maintenance requirements.

No hardware changes are being made to the platform.

But officials acknowledged that they still don’t know why the failure happened, in part because the …