Jacksonville, FL — At least five people are dead, following the crash of a Puerto Rico Air National Guard plane in Georgia, but that's just the latest of several military air incidents we've seen in recent months.
WOKV has been digging deeper to see what changes are being made to keep your service members safe.
Just last month, there were two US Marine aircraft incidents in Djibouti. Before that, an Air Force pilot was killed in an F-16 fighter jet crash in Nevada, and four Marines died in a helicopter crash in California. Going back to late-2017, there was an incident involving a Navy plane and crash of that killed an Air Force pilot. The months leading up to that saw a Marine aircraft crash in Australia and a Marine plane crash in Mississippi.
While these incidents represent air assets in various branches of the military, WOKV has focused in on Naval aviation, because of the impact here at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport.
A Naval Air Force Atlantic Public Affairs Officer, Commander Dave Hecht, tells us the “biggest spike” in Navy mishaps has been in the “Class C” category, which are the most minor in nature, but could progress to more serious if they’re not addressed. Data we’ve obtained shows these types of incidents have steadily increased over the last five years, with the total across the Navy- including aviation incidents- at 243 last year.
Hecht says they believe there is a correlation between reduced experience by aircraft maintainers and an increase in Class C mishaps. Maintainers perform a long list of tasks, with the core responsibility to ensure aircraft are up to standards and safe to fly.
Because of this correlation, over the past half-a-year or so, Hecht says Naval aviation leadership has made several changes to increase maintainer experience. These initiatives include doubling the length of initial apprentice orders at shore maintenance commands, increasing the experience level of maintainers at strike-fighter squadrons, and establishing a “maintenance readiness floor” to ensure enough maintainers are available.
“The safety of our naval aviators and aircraft maintainers is a top priority of Naval aviation leadership. Our focus is on ensuring they are able to perform their missions and return home safely,” he says.
Hecht says these changes are in response to the “spike” they saw, but not any specific incident.
Fox News reports 37 service members were killed in military aircraft crashes last year, which is nearly double the number killed in 2016.