The US Department of Defense says it remains confident in the Osprey aircraft after three marines were killed in a military exercise when the plane crashed to the ground on a remote Northern Territory island.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh was grilled on the safety of the Boeing MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, less than 24 hours after the bodies of those killed were recovered from the crash site.
"I think we do certainly have confidence in the Osprey," Ms Singh told a briefing.
"If anything changes, if these investigations lead to something that would cause us or our service to adjust anything about how we believe the Osprey should be used, we would do that. But at this time, we have confidence in that."
The aircraft has a tumultuous history, with a number of mechanical and operational issues since its introduction in the 1980s.
Since 2012, 19 people have died in six crashes involving the Osprey which is used by the US and Japan.
A "complex" investigation is underway on Melville Island, 80km north of Darwin, as emergency services try to understand where the US Marine military exercise went wrong on Sunday morning.
The bodies of Captain Eleanor LeBeau, 29, Corporal Spencer Collart, 21, and Major Tobin Lewis, 37, were recovered from the crash site on Tuesday evening and returned to Darwin.
Twenty other marines were also injured when their MV-22 Osprey aircraft plunged to the ground during a large-scale training exercise, with one flown to Melbourne in a critical condition.
Two more remain stable at Royal Darwin Hospital.
No Australian personnel were involved in the incident which occurred during Exercise Predator's Run 2023.
The Osprey is a multi-engine, dual-piloted, vertical takeoff and landing tilt-rotor aircraft, sometimes called a "heli-plane", designed for combat, service support and special operations missions.
It has also been deployed in humanitarian situations, earthquake relief and hurricane response.
Australia does not use the Osprey, however other local aircraft have come under recent scrutiny after four Australians were killed in a military exercise in the Whitsundays in July.
The MRH-90 Taipan choppers have been grounded since the incident and were trucked back to the Townsville RAAF base on Wednesday.
The Pentagon would not be pressed on whether the chequered history of the Osprey was due to mechanical failures of the aircraft.
"I wouldn't right now apply a sweeping broad stroke across every incident linking them together, they're all very unfortunate," Ms Singh said.
"But I wouldn't say that they're all connected in one way or the other."
The marines' bodies will be returned to their families in the US in coming days.
