A Marine pilot was killed when his F/A-18C Hornet crashed during training in California, the Marine Corps said Friday.
The pilot was part of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing, based at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near Twentynine Palms. The crash, which occurred at about 10:30 PT Thursday, is under investigation. The pilot’s name has not been released.
The death comes in the wake of a June 2 crash that killed Marine Blue Angles pilot Capt. Jeff Kuss while he was practicing for an air show in Smyrna, Tennessee.
CNN reported in June that a series of recent military crashes were costing lives and billions of dollars after a MH-60S helicopter crashed in the James River in Virginia during training and two F-16C fighter jets collided in the skies over Georgia.
In the first crash, the helicopter crew was rescued, and in the second the two South Carolina Air National Guard pilots safely ejected.
Two Navy fighters, F/A-18F Super Hornets, collided off the North Carolina coast in May, and a fishing boat rescued all four crew members.
Testifying before Congress in March, Marine Corps Gen. John Paxton blamed cut budgets and aging fleets, strained by lengthy conflicts, for the increasing rate of crashes
“If you don’t have the money and you don’t have the parts and you don’t have the maintenance, then you fly less,” Paxton told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If you fly less and maintain slower, there’s a higher likelihood of accidents. So, we’re worried.”
The Navy has suffered the heaviest losses of the three military branches since October 2014. From then through April, the Navy has reported accidents that total more than $1 billion in damages, according to statistics provided to CNN by the Naval Safety Center. They included a Marine AV-8B Harrier jet that crashed off the East Coast during takeoff in May, costing about $62.8 million, and a Navy F/A-18A crash in Nevada in January that cost $71 million. Both pilots survived.
The Marines, however, suffered the deadliest military aviation tragedy in years when two CH-53 helicopters crashed while on training flight in Hawaii in January, killing 12. The Navy estimates that the crash cost nearly $110 million.
In joint congressional testimony in April, the senior naval leadership overseeing aviation, Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Jon Davis and Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, reiterated Paxton’s contention that planes and funds are running short.
Describing the CH-53s, Davis said, “They are getting old and wearing out. We can only keep them going for so long.”
The Air Force has also experienced a significant number of accidents.
Since October 2014, the Air Force has had 27 “Class A mishaps,” accidents that result in a fatality, loss of an aircraft or property damage of $2 million or more involving fixed-wing aircraft, an Air Force public affairs officer told CNN.
The Army’s Combat Readiness Center told CNN that the Army had 19 Class A aviation accidents resulting in six fatalities from October 2014 to October 2015, including a UH-60 crash near Fort Hood, Texas, that cost the lives of four soldiers.