Navy sailors conduct a crash and salvage training exercise on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on Sept. 11, 2025. (Tyler Harstad/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — Serious U.S. military aviation mishaps rose significantly between 2020 and 2024, killing 90 people and costing billions in damage, according to new Pentagon data provided to Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
There were a total of 4,820 mishaps from October 2019 to July 2024, including 222 of the most severe “Class A” incidents, which result in damage of at least $2.5 million, destroy aircraft, or lead to fatalities or permanent full disability.
The rate of such accidents rose from 1.30 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours in 2020 to 2.02 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours in 2024 — an increase of 55%, according to Warren.
Those mishaps killed 90 service members and Defense Department civilian employees, destroyed 89 aircraft and cost the military $9.4 billion. There were 25 fatalities, 14 destroyed aircraft and costs of $1.7 billion in the first half of the 2024 budget year alone, according to the data.
“These data reveal that [the Defense Department] must make additional efforts to improve aviation safety, and that Congress must act,” said Warren in a letter sent Tuesday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The senator has partnered with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on an amendment included in the Senate’s annual defense policy bill that would require more transparency from the military’s safety investigation boards.
The boards identify root factors and safety issues that contribute to aviation accidents, but their reports are not made public or provided to lawmakers.
If adopted by the House and Senate as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the measure would give lawmakers access to summaries of investigations over the past three years and help Congress in its oversight role of preventing accidents, Warren said.
The data provided by the Pentagon shows the Marine Corps had the highest average rates of Class A mishaps out of all the military branches, with a 194% increase from 2020 to 2024. In 2023, the service’s commandant ordered all Marine units to review their approach to safety after two aircraft crashes within days of each other killed four Marines.
Aviation mishaps continued across all the services this year.
In January, an Army helicopter collided with a commercial passenger plane over Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. The Navy has lost several F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets to mishaps, including incidents this spring where two jets fell off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.
Most recently in October, a Super Hornet jet and a helicopter assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other.
Warren said she is seeking more recent crash data from the Pentagon as well as information on how the military is addressing the rising rate of accidents.
