8 U.S. Marines remain hospitalized following crash that killed three of their colleagues, U.S. assisting South Korea in retrieving wreckage from North Korean failed satellite launch.
1. Eight U.S. Marines remained in a hospital in the Australian north coast city of Darwin on Monday after they were injured in a fiery crash of a tiltrotor aircraft that killed three of their colleagues on an island. All 20 survivors were flown from Melville Island 80 kilometers (50 miles) south to Darwin within hours of the Marine V-22 Osprey crashing at 9:30 a.m. Sunday during a multinational training exercise, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said.
2. The United States is assisting the South Korean military in retrieving wreckage from North Korea’s failed reconnaissance satellite launch, a senior defense official told lawmakers Friday. Seoul and Washington are working to salvage the space launch vehicle from the Yellow Sea and are analyzing the launch together, Heo Taekeun, chief of South Korea’s National Defense Policy Department, said at a televised hearing of the parliamentary National Defense Committee.
3. The U.S. military has identified the Marine Corps pilot who was killed Thursday when his combat jet crashed near a San Diego base during a training flight. Maj. Andrew Mettler was piloting an F/A-18D Hornet when it went down at 11:54 p.m. Thursday near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing said in a statement from its headquarters in Cherry Point, N.C. Searchers recovered Mettler's body at the site, and the crash remains under investigation.
4. Taiwan’s defense ministry said Saturday that China sent dozens of aircraft and vessels toward the island, just days after the United States approved a $500-million arms sale to Taiwan. The defense ministry said in a statement that 32 aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army and nine vessels from the navy were detected in the 24 hours between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday.
5. Russia’s top domestic security agency said Monday that a detained former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok is accused of collecting information about Russia’s action in Ukraine and related issues for U.S. diplomats. Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, the country’s main domestic security agency, said Robert Shonov is suspected of “gathering information about the special military operation, mobilization processes in Russian regions, problems and the assessment of their influence on protest activities of the population in the runup to the 2024 presidential election.”
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