Generals’ Data Seized in Osprey Inquiry

The Defense Department’s inspector general has seized data from the computers of two Marine generals as an investigation into an alleged cover-up of problems with the troubled V-22 Osprey aircraft is reaching into the top ranks at the Pentagon.

The investigation began in January with allegations that a lieutenant colonel who commanded the Osprey squadron in North Carolina encouraged crews to falsify maintenance records. Investigators are now looking into whether the squadron commander was pressured by superiors to hide the shortcomings of the Osprey, an innovative aircraft that takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane.