An Air Force captain and a staff sergeant were both permanently disabled in an all-terrain vehicle rollover crash while training in the Pacific last year, leaving one paralyzed and the other with an amputated leg, according to new details revealed in an accident investigation report.
The incident happened on Feb. 17, 2023, near North Field on Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands when a male captain was driving a Side by Vehicle Search and Rescue Tactical Vehicle, or SRTV-SXV, with a female staff sergeant in the passenger seat. The captain, a Tactical Air Control Party officer, was there to participate in an exercise on the island, and the noncommissioned officer was with public affairs to document the event.
While traveling to a training exercise down a narrow, overgrown road, the vehicle went off the road into thick vegetation and began to roll. The two airmen “were not wearing seat belts or personal protective equipment,” and they “were both ejected,” according to the report, which was made public last week.
Read Next: Sailors Who Fail 2 Consecutive Fitness Tests Will No Longer Face the End of Their Career, Navy Says
The captain, assigned to the 25th Air Support Operations Squadron out of Wheeler Army Airfield in Hawaii, suffered serious injuries that caused permanent paralysis below his waist, according to the report.
The staff sergeant, who was with the 1st Combat Camera Squadron at Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina,…
