Pentagon data reveals a dramatic rise in fatal military aircraft crashes

According to newly released figures from the Pentagon, serious accidents involving US military aircraft increased by 55% between 2020 and 2024.

These “Class A” accidents—defined as those that destroy an aircraft, cause more than $2.5 million in damage, or result in death or permanent disability—led to 90 fatalities, the destruction of 89 aircraft, and $9.4 billion in losses for the military.

“These accident rates are extremely alarming and require immediate action,” said Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Armed Services Committee, after the Department of Defense presented her with the data.

Warren added that the Pentagon’s effort to ensure greater transparency in accident investigations is “urgently necessary to save the lives of service members.”

According to the military blog The Bunker, the causes of these accidents can include, among other factors, collective dereliction of duty by the military-industrial complex, failures at the unit level, pilot incompetence, overloading, or inadequate training; sometimes the cause remains unknown.

The Bunker commented:

“Warplanes have safety measures and backup systems to help pilots avoid danger. But US military aircraft accidents are often triggered by a ‘perfect storm’ where several things must go wrong simultaneously or in a sequential chain for disaster to occur. Therefore, unfortunately, there are an infinite number of causes.”

However, a relationship exists between accidents and training, flight hours, and spare parts; accidents tend to increase when these three elements decrease.

For example, as The Bunker recently noted, the average number of hours Air Force fighter pilots flew each month was 16 in the 1990s, dropped to 10 in the mid-2010s, and is now approximately 5. It appears that pilots with fewer flight hours are involved in more accidents.

The Pentagon also has a tendency to blame pilots for accidents. Beyond this, calls for more funding for better training, increased flight hours, and more spare parts are a recurring narrative from the Pentagon following these incidents.