Marine Corps Aviation Deaths 5 Year High

Marine aviation deaths hit 5-year high
Marine Corps Times
By James K. Sanborn, Staff writer
September 6, 2015

The Marine Corps suffered its biggest loss of life this year in a single aviation accident when 11 troops, including seven members of Marine Corps Special Forces Operations Command, were killed when their UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed off the coast of Florida during a training exercise.

Firefighters in Imperial, Calif., work to extinguish the blaze caused by the crash of an AV-8B Harrier from Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz., in June 2014. There have already been 18 Marine fatalities resulting from aviation mishaps in 2015, a five-year high. (Photo: Chelcey Adami/AP)

A fatal helicopter crash in North Carolina this week brought the total number of Marine aviation-related deaths to 18 so far this year — already a five-year high just nine months into 2015.

A CH-53E Super Stallion made a hard landing at Stone Bay near Camp Lejeune on Wednesday. Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lewis, one of about 20 Marines conducting a fast-roping exercise, was killed. Eleven other Marines were injured. Lewis was based out of Norfolk, Virginia, and was training to deploy with a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team.

The Sept. 2 incident, which remains under investigation, was one of at least 13 since May 2014 that resulted in death, injury or significant property damage. Five aircraft mishaps have left at least 18 Marines dead in 2015 — up 15 compared to the 2014 total. The last spike in aviation-related deaths occurred in 2012, when 15 Marines were killed in aircraft mishaps.

Marine officials say they're committed to aircraft safety, but "by its very nature, there will always be inherent risk in military aviation," said Maj. Paul Greenberg a Marine aviation spokesman at the Pentagon.
read more here