In the last 12 months, the Marine Corps has undergone an alarming series of aircraft crashes, resulting in 14 fatalities and 11 lost aircraft.
Lieutenant General Jon M. Davis explains that inquiries so far reveal that human components have probably been the cause of many of these incidents.
In particular, according to an investigation released in October, the January 14, 2016 big collision of two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters that resulted in the deaths of the 12 Marines aboard was the result of failure to maintain adequate distance during the night training flight; and it appears that also other accidents of the last months (December 7, Pacific Ocean; December 13, Okinawa) involved aircrafts in good flying condition, so were probably caused by human errors. “They’re still being investigated, but there was nothing wrong with those airplanes, mechanically,” Davis aknowledges.
had made changes to increase pilot flight hours and proficiency.
“We’re about three hours per pilot per month better than we were [in May 2015], but that’s not good enough,” Davis said. “We’re still shy of our target. [But] I was surprised with the mishaps we had in October.”
Behind these failures there’s maybe the increase of pilot flight hours that Marine Corps stated a while back. By the way, Davis ensures that the Corps have improved the supervision for sortie planning and execution, among other changes.
Source: https://www.rotor.org/Publications/ROTORDAILY/