Overview
- The rate of Class A aviation mishaps rose from 1.30 to 2.02 per 100,000 flight hours from fiscal 2020 to 2024, with 4,820 total mishaps, 222 Class A incidents, 90 deaths, 89 aircraft destroyed and about $9.4 billion in losses through July 2024.
- The Marine Corps recorded the steepest branch-level increase, with an estimated 194% rise in Class A rates over the period.
- Platform-specific trends in the Pentagon data include a roughly 4.5× increase for the Apache, a near doubling for the C-130, and high incident rates for H-60 helicopters, F-18s and C-17s.
- Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dan Sullivan secured FY26 NDAA language directing the Joint Safety Council to provide Congress executive summaries of Safety Investigation Board reports from the past three years.
- Warren also requested updated mishap figures from August 2024 to the present and a DoD plan to address aviation safety by Dec. 2, as the Pentagon emphasizes ongoing safety reviews and 2025 incidents suggest concerns persist.