WASHINGTON (AP) — The Marine Corps in a ceremony at the commandant’s headquarters on Monday presented their highest noncombat medal to the parents of Cpl. Spencer Collart, who died last year after his V-22 Osprey crashed in Australia.
Collart, 21, survived the crash but went back into the burning aircraft to try to save the pilots, who were trapped.
….
Bart Collart called his son “one of the best knuckleheads you ever wanted to hang out with.” He said the pilots and Spencer “lost their lives while managing to save the lives of every Marine they were transporting,” and he credited the pilots with leveling out the Osprey before it hit the ground, to give the troops they were transporting a better chance of surviving.
….
Seconds after the Osprey hit the ground, the aircraft filled with smoke and flames. According to witness reports in the crash investigation. Collart, the crew chief, had been standing in the tunnel even as the aircraft was going down. Most of the 23 troops on board escaped out the back, including a commander who told investigators he saw Collart escape out a side door.
…..
Collart escaped the burning aircraft “and immediately began ensuring the safety of the Marines around him,” Smith said. But Capt. Eleanor LeBeau and aircraft commander Maj. Tobin Lewis were still trapped inside, and Collart went back in to try to save them.
Investigators believe he may have unbuckled Lewis from his restraints before he succumbed to the smoke and flames.
Bugs Marlowe