Why are so many American fighter planes crashing?

[a.bentonab]

2 f-18's crashed today in the Pacific
2 Navy jets crash in Pacific - CNN.com

An f-15 crashed a couple weeks ago

Fighter plane crashes in Virginia national forest - Chicago Tribune

is there some kind of shadow war I'm not aware of?

 

[Birds Away]

The military is a dangerous business, even if only training. I made eight deployments of at least six months and we lost at least one shipmate on each one.

 

[T.Lex]

Yeah. Training to do dangerous things is dangerous.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

2 f-18's crashed today in the Pacific
2 Navy jets crash in Pacific - CNN.com

An f-15 crashed a couple weeks ago

Fighter plane crashes in Virginia national forest - Chicago Tribune

is there some kind of shadow war I'm not aware of?

Fallible human beings operating at the edge of human capability in machines that make speeds that humans were incapable of imagining a few generations ago? Perhaps that's why.

The Army loses people in training accidents using ground vehicles. As stated, training to do dangerous things (realistically) is also dangerous.

 

[Alamo]

The F-18s and the F-15 are tragic events, but the military (and civilian) flying business is nowhere near as crash-prone as it used to be, if you look back more than a few years, and so any crash garners attention.

For example, this article Navy Aims to Curtail Aviation Mishaps Caused by Crew Error notes the Navy's overall flying Class A mishap rate in 1999 was 1.9 per 100,000 flying hours. 50 years earlier to that it was 54 per 100,000 flying hours. I don't think it has increased much since 2000. The Air Force went through a similar reduction in flying accident rate. I think it was in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff that it was noted that funerals for test pilots occurred about once per week at Edwards AFB in the early 1960s. And that was just one base.

Now I think most military aircraft run between 1.0 and 2.0 Class A mishaps per 100,000, at least since the 1980s. Fast moving tactical aircraft tend to have somewhat higher rates, heavies tend to have lower accident rates.

So when you ask why so many crashes, you have to consider "as compared to when?" "Normal" mishap rates are low enough that any single event is noteworthy, and two of them close together in time really gets attention.

As to a "shadow war" going on? Well, maybe, but it was my observation when I was in service that aircraft readiness rates increased and mishaps decreased during combat operations, so if there is a war going on (John Kerry says there's no war!), I would expect accidents to decrease.

 

[planedriver]

Sounds callous but we are just seeing the luck of the draw. The folks flying these things are, at times, flying faster than bullets out of many guns. Think about putting a saddle on a bullet and trying to drive! Computers or not, there is very, very little room for any kind of error.

Yeah I know they did it in Top Gun but remember. At mach 1 one of these aircraft would travel from the top to the bottom of the Empire State building in 1.09 seconds.

 

[UNCLE HARLEY]

2 f-18's crashed today in the Pacific
2 Navy jets crash in Pacific - CNN.com

An f-15 crashed a couple weeks ago

Fighter plane crashes in Virginia national forest - Chicago Tribune

is there some kind of shadow war I'm not aware of?

Are you not concerned about the 30k people killed on the highways each year?

 

[ModernGunner]

Need to remember that humans are traveling (especially with flight) at speeds much faster than the human brain was designed to comprehend.

The human brain is an amazing piece of 'engineering', 'worlds best computer' and all that. But it DOES have it's limits. So do the 'input devices'; eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin.

In flying at 'fighter speeds', there's simply a huge amount of information coming into the brain at an increasingly high rate. 'Sensory overload' occurs at some point, regardless of the human. We push to find those humans with the 'fastest / highest' capacity, but regardless of the person, there's still a limit.

This is why some folks deal with something like a gunfight better than others. One guy seems to 'panic and freeze', the other guy seems to remain 'cool and calm', even if they have the same training and experience.

Difference in sensory input capacity and processing capability, that's all.

 

[actaeon277]

Engines that are driven from 20% to 100% then down to 50%, over and over.
Airframes that undergo ginormous stresses of maneuvers and carrier take offs/landings, all while being older than the pilots flying them.
Every nut and screw, solder joint, and fastener subjected to repeated shocks.
Nope, can't figure it out.

 

[indykid]

I have a close friend from Strike Fighter Squadron 113 who flies F18s and I am going nuts trying to find out who went down.

Have connections in the military and am pulling every string I can to find out more.

Regardless, prayers for those involves as well as their family and friends.

 

[hotcorner5]

As a pilot, I always know there is a risk that accompanies flying. There are many things that can go wrong in the air but also many safety checks and features that can prevent an accident. Even if an engine goes out, the plane can still glide for a landing.
We have a saying in aviation "the dangerous part is driving in your car home from the airport." There are many flights everyday and the percentage of flights to crashes and fatalities is quite low.
If I were in the military, I would be terrified to fly the new F22. That is a plane with a poor maintenance record.

 

[Tactical Dave]

Not going I to details but the people that designed the maintenance program and signed off on a lot of stuff related to that for the 22 are guys that REALLY know what they are doing... Any new bed has it's hicups... Example the osprey... Put me in anything but that.... Again though last I heard those bugs got worked out... Sadly it killed a bunch of people first.

i know one person that lost a Lockheed test pilot that was flying a 22... From what I hear was low and fast... And lost his jet (crew chief) of many years that he also went to war with in a mid air that also killed the pilot flying it (chute did not open if I remember right).... He has not been quite the same since...

Since 9/11 we have been at constant war... Far more flying means greater odds something will happen.... So much more flying that jets that were projected to say have another 10 years of life ended up being 5.

i know for the ground guys vehicle accidents and water crossings are the big ones.

over the ocean you don't have as much flying restrictions as you do over land in the US... Get two planes turning and burning and probably at times well past the sound barrier and stuff happens so fast that the brain can't compute it fast enough.

 

[indykid]

Got word that the rescued pilot was from 113, so my friend should be ok. Now prayers that they find the missing pilot still alive.

Details of the accident. Crew members on the carrier saw the midair collision as it happened. It appears all the aircraft were in standard landing pattern when obviously the two somehow got tangled.

Oh, the big problem with the F22 was the oxygen system, which somehow under certain circumstances failed to deliver sufficient oxygen to keep the pilot fully alert.

And while the CV-22 Osprey didn't have the best start up record, what the news media isn't reporting is that it has served very well once the bugs got worked out. Current crews are very happy with it.

 

[hotcorner5]

The next generation Osprey...I saw this beast in one of my aviation magazines. Even has electric engines.


NASA?s electric vertical-takeoff airplane takes first flight, aims to eventually replace the helicopter | ExtremeTech

 

[KellyinAvon]

I remember about a 4 year stretch during the 90s, the USAF lost about 1 F-16 a month. A little bit of everything was the cause. When I was a young troop in the 80s we still had F-4s. Those things crashed a lot it seems.