onebyone
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2014
- Messages
- 7,550
- Reaction score
- -6
- Country
- Location
Five U.S. military aircraft crashed over a period of less than a month beginning in mid-March 2018, killing 16 crew members and alarming military officials. Two of the crashes involved U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, underscoring concerns that the naval aviation fleet is overworked, undertrained and poorly-maintained.
“We’re at the breaking point on stressing the fleet,” Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the Navy’s deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems, said at a symposium in Maryland in April 2018.
The spate of crashes began on March 14, when a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter plunged into the sea near Naval Air Station Key West in Florida. Both aircrew died.
On March 15, an Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopter struck the ground in western Iraq, killing all seven airmen aboard. On April 3, a Marine CH-53E Super Stallion transport copter crashed in California. All four crewmen perished.
The same day, a Marine AV-8B Harrier attack jet fell from the sky over Djibouti and an Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter crashed in Nevada. The Marine pilot safely ejected. The Air Force pilot, a member of the Thunderbirds demonstration team, died on impact.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/american-warplanes-are-falling-the-sky-25331
“We’re at the breaking point on stressing the fleet,” Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the Navy’s deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems, said at a symposium in Maryland in April 2018.
The spate of crashes began on March 14, when a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter plunged into the sea near Naval Air Station Key West in Florida. Both aircrew died.
On March 15, an Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopter struck the ground in western Iraq, killing all seven airmen aboard. On April 3, a Marine CH-53E Super Stallion transport copter crashed in California. All four crewmen perished.
The same day, a Marine AV-8B Harrier attack jet fell from the sky over Djibouti and an Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter crashed in Nevada. The Marine pilot safely ejected. The Air Force pilot, a member of the Thunderbirds demonstration team, died on impact.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/american-warplanes-are-falling-the-sky-25331