Pentagon data released internally to Congress earlier this year indicated a significant increase in serious military accidents in 2024. The data showed a 55% increase in significant military aviation accidents per 100,000 flight hours in the 2024 budget year compared with four years prior. Marine Corps saw the steepest climb, nearly tripling its rate over the same period.
The Associated Press received a copy of the data and said it conducted an independent review of the figures.
Over the first 10 months of the 2024 budget year, 25 service members and Defense Department civilian employees were killed and 14 aircraft were destroyed. In a statement to AP, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the rising rates “are incredibly troubling and demand action.”
Several platforms showed notable increases, including the Apache helicopter, which recorded about 4.5 times the rate of Class A accidents from four years earlier, and the C-130 transport aircraft, which nearly doubled its rate.
The AP reported that the Navy, in a separate report, logged eight Class A mishaps in 2024 and has recorded 14 so far in 2025.
Though the Pentagon’s data extends only through July 2024, several high-profile accidents have occurred this year, including a January collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger CRJ700 jet over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. Other incidents include the loss of an F/A-18 from the USS Harry S. Truman in the spring, crashes involving aircraft from the USS Nimitz in October and a September Black Hawk crash in Washington state that killed four soldiers.
The Associated Press said Warren’s office has requested expanded mishap data from 2019 through 2025, along with additional information on aircrew and maintenance training.
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