More service members will die if the readiness shortfalls that led to January’s CH-53 helicopter crash that killed 12 Marines are not addressed, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said on Thursday.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said that while the crash affected the Marine Corps, the factors that led to the crash are present in all of the services.
“If left unaddressed, they will invariably result in more tragic loss of life,” Thornberry said in a statement. “While this investigation reveals pilot error in the final seconds of this mission, it is clear that in the months, days, and hours beforehand, the department failed these Marines.”
Twelve Marines were killed in January after two CH-53 helicopters collided off the coast of Hawaii during a training flight.
The Marine Corps investigation found that pilot error, a lack of training and command problems all contributed to the crash, Huffington Post reported. The explosion occurred when the two helos crashed into each other, “instantaneously” killing everyone onboard.
The report found that the four pilots involved in the crash had all flown fewer hours in the last month than the service’s goal of 15.1 flight hours in the CH-53 aircraft. It also found that two of the pilots were not “adequately proficient” in using night-vision goggles, with one of them flying zero night hours in the previous three months.
Chris Harmer, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, told the Huffington Post that allowing those pilots to fly in that situation with so little training was “bordering on criminal negligence.”
Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, told lawmakers in March that the service cannot meet training requirements under the current budget when asked why serious air accidents have increased significantly over the past three years.
“We track this very closely and the simple fact is we don’t have enough airplanes to meet training requirements for the entire force,” Neller told lawmakers at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on the fiscal 2017 budget request.
Readiness shortfalls across all services have been a major concern of Congress amid reports that Marines have had to scavenge museum aircraft for spare parts and soldiers at Fort Hood have to work on their vehicles outside because doors are not wide enough for modern vehicles.
“The Obama administration’s legacy will be framed by their decision to play political games with defense funding, rather than facing these problems head-on and working with Congress to fix them,” Thornberry said. “These challenges were years in the making and will take years to correct. It is time to stop playing games and get to fixing these problems immediately.”
