PITTSFIELD — More than a year after a V-22 Osprey crash killed Pittsfield native Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” Galliher, a new defense spending bill will compel the Pentagon to release internal safety findings that have never been made public.

The provision, inserted into the bill by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., orders the Department of Defense to release the Safety Investigation Board report summary of investigations conducted between Jan. 1, 2022 and July 1, 2025, with a deadline of April 1, 2026.

That time span includes the Nov. 29, 2023, Osprey crash off the coast of Yakushima Island that killed Galliher, a linguistics expert fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and seven other Air Force personnel.

An Air Force Accident Investigation Report was released on Aug. 1, 2024, and cited a "catastrophic failure of the left-hand prop rotor gear box." It also suggested "casual" decision-making by the pilot — an assertion Galliher's widow Ivy Galliher questioned in an essay published by Newsweek calling for the V-22 to be grounded.

"I've since heard accounts of pilots who would have made the exact same call as this pilot. All of them made it home alive," she wrote.

The internal Safety Investigation Board report has not been made public. However, Military.com reported in 2024 that according to the internal report, the gear failure that caused the crash "was similar to those seen on seven previous failures in low-speed planetary pinion gears."

The Defense Authorization Bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Thursday.

“The best way I can honor Jake’s legacy is by fighting for transparency and accountability from the Pentagon,” Warren said in a prepared statement. “I'll keep fighting to make sure the V-22's safety defects are addressed so no more military families lose their loved ones in preventable accidents.”

A Pittsfield native and 2017 graduate of Taconic High School, Galliher left a widow and two young children, the youngest just weeks old at the time of Galliher's death.

The crash has also led to legal action and renewed scrutiny of the aircraft’s design.

According to a lawsuit filed last year by Galliher’s estate against the V-22 Osprey’s manufacturers, Galliher, a specialist in Mandarin Chinese assigned the 43rd Intelligence Squadron, was specifically requested for the mission and otherwise would have still been on paternity leave.

The lawsuit, filed on the first anniversary of the crash, was dismissed without prejudice in June in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The plaintiffs sought the dismissal as lead counsel in the case experienced a family medical emergency requiring lengthy rehabilitation. Dismissal without prejudice means the case can be refiled at a later date.

The lawsuit sought damages from Bell Textron and Boeing, which jointly manufactured the V-22, and Universal Stainless, which produced the metal alloy used in the aircraft's gearbox. It was filed in Texas as Bell Textron is headquartered in Fort Worth.

The lawsuit alleged that Bell Textron and Boeing failed to use proper care in manufacturing the aircraft by using a metal alloy, provided by Universal Stainless, “that it knew or should have known had design defects” that would cause the gearbox to disintegrate, leading to a catastrophic failure.

The V-22 Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers forward and cruise like an airplane. But the aircraft has a tortured history of fatal crashes. Multiple internal and media reports have cited problems with its transmission and the metal alloys used to make the pinions for its gearbox — and the continued failure to fix the problem despite years of evidence and loss of life.

A letter from Warren, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III in 2024 sought to keep the V-22 grounded. According to the letter, the aircraft has been involved in 21 major accidents since 1992, resulting in 64 deaths.

The V-22 returned to flight under restricted conditions in 2024, and controversially was used in a flyover before the 2024 Super Bowl that members of Galliher’s surviving family called “incredibly traumatizing.”

Earlier this year, the aircraft’s program manager told BreakingDefense.com the aircraft will not resume full flight operations until 2026, pending improvements to its troubled gearbox.

Marine Corps Col. Robert Hurst told the website that the military expects to take delivery of upgraded gearbox components in January, with the goal of returning the Osprey to unrestricted flight by the end of 2026.

Last week, Warren also released new data showing that between 2020 and 2024, Class A mishaps, the most serious category of accidents, cost the military $9.4 billion, killed 90 service members and Department of Defense civilian employees, and destroyed 89 aircraft.

Among the service branches, the Marine Corps had the highest average Class A mishap rates, with a 194 percent increase from 2020 to 2024.