Overview
- In Pentagon figures provided to Congress, Class A mishaps rose from 1.30 to 2.02 per 100,000 flight hours between 2020 and 2024, with 222 Class A events among 4,820 total mishaps through July 2024.
- Those accidents killed 90 people, destroyed 89 aircraft and cost $9.4 billion, with costs jumping from $1.6 billion in FY2022 to $2.9 billion in FY2023 and reaching $1.7 billion in the first half of FY2024.
- The Marine Corps recorded the steepest increase in severe mishaps, rising 194% since 2020, while Navy data show eight Class A aviation mishaps in 2024 and 14 so far in 2025.
- Platform trends include about a 4.5× rise in Class A accident rates for the AH-64 Apache and a near doubling for the C-130, with the V-22 Osprey repeatedly flagged in past reporting for elevated risk.
- An amendment led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dan Sullivan in the FY26 NDAA would require the Joint Safety Council to give Congress executive summaries of safety investigation boards and corrective actions, and Warren has asked DoD for updated 2019–2025 data and plans by December 2 as multiple 2025 mishaps suggest the trend may be continuing.