Posted on: Monday, January 31, 2005

Marines' air accidents drop

By Frank Oliveri
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Marine Corps aircraft accident rates have improved by about 50 percent this fiscal year when compared to the same period last year, statistics show.

As of Jan. 27, the Marines had suffered three Class A accidents, which involve a death or more than $1 million in damages, since Oct. 1. That compares with six in the same period last fiscal year, said Capt. Jerome Bryant, a Marine Corps spokesman, in response to questions from The Advertiser.

Fiscal 2004 was the worst aircraft safety year for the Marine Corps since 1990 with 18 Class A aircraft accidents, according to Bryant.

This year's data includes the accident Wednesday in which 31 U.S. troops — including 26 Marines and a Navy Corpsman at Kane'ohe — were killed when their CH-53E Super Stallion went down in a sandstorm in Iraq.

The numbers indicate efforts by the Marine Corps to improve its safety record may be working. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld challenged all the services to reduce their accident rates by 50 percent in the next two years, and the Navy and Marine Corps — a day before the Super Stallion crash — initiated efforts to embed safety into its long-range strategic planning, according to Navy documents.

Operating in a war zone, however, may make that challenge difficult to meet.

In Iraq "you are frequently flying at the edge of the envelope rather than what you are flying back here in the states in training," said retired Rear Adm. Stephen Pietropaoli, executive director of the Navy League in Arlington, Va. "When you are moving troops in Iraq, you are always cognizant that you are a target. It's not always low and slow."

The Marine Corps' goal is a rate of 2.9 accidents per 100,000 flying hours, but in fiscal 2004 the service suffered 5.3 accidents per 100,000 flying hours.

Since 2000, however, the average accident rate is 3.21 per 100,000 flying hours, and this year to date the rate is 3.22, compared with 6.31 for the same period last year.

Pietropaoli said Navy Secretary Gordon England has made aircraft safety a major issue of his leadership.

"He commissioned safety awards and put up money from his own pocket to recognize improvements in safety," Pietropaoli said.

In an internal Navy memo, a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy said safety would be included for the first time in the Defense Department's strategic planning guidelines. They call for a continued reduction in accidents even after the military achieves a 50 percent reduction over two years.