**Spike in Military Aircraft Accidents in 2024: Is 2025 Worse Yet?**

(UNITED STATES) A sharp rise in military aircraft accidents during the 2024 budget year has alarmed U.S. lawmakers and defense officials, with early data from 2025 suggesting the problem is getting worse rather than easing. Across all branches, the rate of the most serious aviation mishaps, known as Class A accidents, rose 55% in the 2024 budget year compared with four years earlier, according to newly compiled data.

Class A accidents are the Pentagon’s most severe aviation incidents, typically involving a death, permanent disability, the loss of an aircraft, or very high damage costs. In the first 10 months of the 2024 budget cycle alone, 25 service members and Defense Department civilian employees were killed, and 14 aircraft were destroyed. The numbers have revived questions about pilot training, maintenance standards, and the strain being placed on the armed forces as they juggle operations, exercises and deterrence missions around the world.

The Marine Corps recorded the steepest increase, nearly tripling its Class A accident rate over the four-year period. The causes vary from case to case, but aviation experts point to the Corps’ heavy reliance on complex and, in some cases, riskier aircraft such as the V-22 Osprey, which operates both as a helicopter and a fixed-wing plane. That dual nature can make it harder to fly and maintain safely, especially when crews are rotating through multiple deployments and training cycles.

The U.S. Army also saw a rise in deadly crashes and serious mishaps. It logged 15 Class A flight mishaps in FY2024, the highest total since 2014. Investigators have linked most of those Army cases to human error, with particular concern around the AH-64 Apache fleet, the Army’s main attack helicopter. Apache crews fly some of the most demanding profiles in the force, often at low altitude and in difficult weather or night conditions. When training hours are cut or instructor availability drops, the margin for error can shrink quickly.

The Navy, too, ended 2024 with more serious crashes than in recent years, reporting eight Class A aviation mishaps. That upward curve has continued into the new year. By the time 2025 was barely halfway through, the Navy had already logged 14 Class A aviation mishaps, nearly double the previous year’s tally. Many of those incidents involve carrier-based jets operating from crowded decks at sea, where any mistake on launch or recovery can turn deadly in moments.

The early months of 2025 have been marked not only by rising totals, but by high-profile disasters that have shocked the public and rattled communities far from war zones. One of the most dramatic came in January 2025, when a collision between an Army helicopter and a passenger jet over Washington, D.C., in January 2025 killed 67 people. The crash over the capital’s skies raised urgent questions about flight coordination, airspace control and whether military training flights near major cities have adequate safeguards.

Other incidents have unfolded thousands of miles away at sea. Multiple crashes involving aircraft carriers have been reported, including one on the USS Nimitz in the South China Sea in October 2025. Operating in crowded and sometimes tense international waters, carrier groups must launch and recover aircraft around the clock, often in poor weather. Every landing and take-off is a choreographed sequence involving pilots, deck crews, and controllers; a misstep by any link in that chain can have lethal results.

In another dramatic event, the USS Gettysburg shooting down an F/A-18 from a carrier in December 2024 highlighted the hazards of complex air-defense drills and live-fire exercises. The fact that a U.S. Navy ship destroyed its own aircraft, even in a training context, underlined how easily a mistake or miscommunication can escalate into a grave accident. These kinds of episodes feed wider concern that, across the services, training and safety checks have not fully kept pace with the growing complexity of modern military operations.

Within the Army, the danger has come into sharp focus around its helicopters. The service has reported four Class A mishaps so far in FY2025, including a fatal crash of an AH-64 Apache in June 2025 near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in which one aviator was killed. The loss of another Apache and its crew has deepened scrutiny of how pilots in the AH-64 Apache fleet are trained and how many hours they are getting in the air. When year-on-year accident numbers climb, families and lawmakers often ask whether budget choices or training shortfalls played a role.

Aviation specialists and Pentagon officials say the spike in serious mishaps is not the result of a single failure, but a web of pressures and gaps. They repeatedly mention increased operational demands, as the U.S. military tries to maintain a heavy global presence, deter rivals, and respond to crises, all while keeping pilots current on complex tactics and weapons. Heavy schedules can push aircraft harder and leave less time for maintenance. They also reduce opportunities for lower-stress training flights where crews can practice emergency procedures without the added pressure of an active operation.

The makeup of the fleet itself is another factor. Newer and more complex aircraft types, especially tilt-rotor platforms and advanced jets, can be less forgiving than older, simpler designs. Officials have pointed to riskier aircraft such as the V-22 Osprey as part of this puzzle. While the Osprey gives commanders speed and range, it also demands a high level of training and meticulous attention to procedures. When mishaps occur in such aircraft, they tend to be severe enough to qualify as Class A accidents, driving up the overall rate.

Training gaps and human error come up again and again in accident investigations. In many cases, pilots did not have enough recent time in the cockpit or were flying in conditions they had not practiced in regularly. That problem traces back in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely curtailed flying hours across the military. During the pandemic years, many training flights were cancelled, exercises were scaled back, and instructors were diverted to other duties. Those lost hours cannot be recovered quickly, and today’s mid-career pilots may still be feeling the effects in their skill levels and confidence during complex maneuvers.

Investigators have also noted training deficiencies beyond flight hours alone. Simulator access, instructor availability, and the quality of safety briefings all play a role. When schedules are tight, some of those elements can be trimmed back to make room for mission requirements. Over time, that can leave gaps in how crews respond to unusual or emergency situations. When something goes wrong at low altitude or during a carrier landing, there may be only seconds to respond, and any hesitation or confusion can prove fatal.

The rising accident toll has triggered renewed concern in Congress. Lawmakers on defense committees have demanded clearer answers from the Pentagon about why the Class A rate has risen so sharply, and why the 2024 budget year stands out compared with earlier periods. Senator Elizabeth Warren has led calls for more accessible accident reports and legal changes to push the services to share more data with the public and with families of those killed. Her push reflects a broader frustration on Capitol Hill that many accident summaries are heavily redacted or take years to release, limiting outside scrutiny.

Inside the Pentagon, senior leaders are under growing pressure to show they are responding. Officials have promised to step up safety reviews, re-examine training pipelines, and consider changes to flight schedules to give pilots more time in the air under controlled conditions. They are also being pushed to provide more detailed, timely data to Congress and to independent safety bodies, so that patterns in military aircraft accidents can be spotted earlier. The Defense Department’s public updates and safety material can be found on the official Department of Defense website, though critics say more granular information is still needed.

For families of pilots and crews, these statistics are not abstract. Each of the 25 deaths recorded in the first 10 months of the 2024 budget year represents a son, daughter, parent or partner who left for a flight that was meant to be routine. Communities near bases like Fort Campbell, busy carrier homeports, and training ranges have grown accustomed to the sound of helicopters and jets overhead. When an accident happens, the loss is felt in squad rooms, school halls, and church pews.

The military has long argued that flying high-performance aircraft is inherently dangerous and that a certain level of risk can never be removed. But the spike in Class A mishaps, the loss of 14 aircraft in such a short window, and the grim headlines from Washington’s skies to the South China Sea have combined to raise doubts about whether the current balance between readiness and safety is sustainable. As 2025 unfolds with accident numbers already outpacing the previous year in some branches, pressure is mounting on commanders and civilian leaders to show that lessons are being learned and that the rate of deaths and destroyed aircraft will start to fall, not continue climbing.