Mother of U.S. Osprey crew member still misses son 2 yrs after Japan crash

KAGOSHIMA, Japan – The mother of a U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey crew member who died in a crash off Yakushima Island in southwestern Japan two years ago said she still deeply misses her son.

“We miss Jeff every single minute of the day, every day,” said Catherine Hoernemann, the mother of Maj. Jeffrey Hoernemann, who died in the accident at the age of 32.

Born in Andover, Minnesota, Hoernemann was “very competitive,” his mother said in an email interview, and that he was “always trying to be better than he was before, whether it be in sports, in school, or in flight.”

Although Hoernemann was a talented pilot with many medals, he never bragged about it and instead wanted to teach new pilots, she said.

“He spoke so highly of Japan” when he was assigned to Yokota Air Base in 2018. Despite the 15-hour time difference, they spoke or texted almost daily during the four months of his deployment, she said.

When he was later assigned to the base again, Hoernemann had plans to have his family visit Japan, his mother said.

On Nov. 29, 2023, the day of the CV-22 transport plane crash that killed all eight personnel aboard, he had texted his mother in the morning to say that he was going to fly.

“I wished him luck and told him I loved him,” the mother said, adding that his reply “I love you, too!” was the last text she received from her son.

According to an investigation report by the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, the accident was caused by a failure of the left-hand proprotor gear box that created a rapidly cascading failure of the aircraft’s drive system.

After her son’s death, she and her family established the Major Jeffrey Hoernemann Memorial Scholarship Foundation, funded by donations, to support students pursuing careers in aviation, education and engineering.

“Jeff led a life of potential. He was so giving of himself and had so much left to offer this world,” his mother said. “We want to tell his story and keep his memory alive, and we felt the best way to do this was to start a scholarship foundation in his memory.”