Army air crashes soar this year

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Army air crashes soar this year `Soldiers are dying' in costly accidents

By RUSSELL CAROLLO Dayton Daily News DAYTON, Ohio -- The Army's latest annual aviation accident rate is the highest, excluding Desert Storm, in 17 years, and the Army's top safety official says mistakes are being made at almost every level.

"Soldiers are dying and we are destroying costly equipment at a rate that is unacceptable," Brig. Gen. Gene LaCoste wrote in a cover story in the Army's December 1999 issue of its aviation safety magazine, Flightfax.

LaCoste, director of the Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., said that fiscal year 1999, which ended Sept. 30, "produced Army aviation's worst safety performance since Desert Shield/Desert Storm." Excluding Desert Storm, it was the worst since 1982, the article said.

The Army reported a major aviation accident an average of once every 20 days during fiscal year 1999, which ended Sept. 30. Twenty people were killed, 10 aircraft were destroyed and damages exceeded $139 million.

The fatalities, the accident rate and the amount of damages all showed increases. The Army reported 103 aviation accidents of Class C and above in fiscal 1999, and its overall accident rate for Class A, B and C accidents was 11.28 per 100,000 flight hours. A Class C accident involves at least $10,000 in damage or an injury causing a specified amount of lost work time.

Army records show that from Oct. 1 to Dec. 16 of fiscal year 2000, the rate for A, B, and C accidents was 11.19 - more than 66 percent higher than the rate during the same period last year.

So far this fiscal year, the Army has had three Class A accidents, involving a death, permanent total disability, $1 million in damage or loss of an aircraft. That's one more major accident than during the same period last year.

The Army reported 18 Class A accidents in fiscal 1999, giving the service a serious accident rate of 1.97 per 100,000 flight hours, up from 1.35 in fiscal 1998.

The Air Force Class A accident rate also increased, from 1.14 accidents per 100,000 flight hours in fiscal year 1998 to 1.40 in 1999 - the highest rate since 1995. The Navy/Marine Corps rate dropped to 1.44 from a five-year high of 2.37 the year before.

LaCoste's comments follow a Dayton Daily News six-part series on military aviation safety, published Oct. 24-29.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), December 19, 1999

Answers

This is most likely do to parts and maintenance than anything related to Y2K.

At one Naval base, I saw several helicopters cannabalized for parts to keep the active one's flying.

This is thanks to President Clinton and the wimpy a@@ Republicans who won't kick his butt and take his name when it comes to our national defense budget.

Getting back to a Reagan type military is only a stroke of the pen away. We just need a Commander in Chief that will pick up the pen and sign on the dotted line.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), December 19, 1999.


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