March 28, 2024

Navy’s Aviation Accidents Keep Rising

aviation accidents

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Morning Coffee logoeconomic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

Is military aviation getting any safer? Deaths from manned aviation accidents began climbing in 2013. With 38 more deaths in 2018, the six-year total reached 171. The only good news was that climb halted in 2017 and the number of accidents fell in 2018. Only the Navy did not improve its total accident counts from 2017 to 2018, climbing from 226 to 232, 83 percent higher than in 2013, reports Military Times.

Andersen AFB in Guam used pesticidal pool chlorinator to sanitize drinking water and has been fined by the territory’s Environmental Protection Agency, reports Air Force Times.

President Donald J. Trump frees special warfare chief from brig, but SEAL skipper imposes restrictions, reports Navy Times. Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward “Eddie” Gallagher is charged with stabbing to death an unarmed Islamic State prisoner of war who was receiving medical care near Mosul in 2017. Gallagher is also accused of wielding a sniper rifle to gun down civilians and then attempting to cover up his crimes by threatening fellow SEALs who reported his alleged misconduct.

Car bomb kills three US troops and a contractor in Afghanistan near Bagram Air Base, reports Military Times. Three other US service members were wounded in the blast.

Iran’s Rouhani defends IRGC, says Trump’s “terror” label a ‘”mistake,” reports Al Jazeera. President Hassan Rouhani called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps  protectors of Iran saying the Trump administration’s labeling the elite force a “terrorist group” was a mistake. Politico reports the Pentagon also warned against the “terrorist” label, but Trump concurred with his National Security Adviser John Bolton and SecState Mike Pompeo who advised DoD’s warnings about risks to US troops were overblown.

Dutch F-16 makes emergency landing after plane shoots itself during  a training exercise, reports Military Times. The pilot fired the aircraft’s 20mm rotary cannon and made an emergency landing at Leeuwarden Air Base despite the plane suffering considerable damage.

Navy Times reports the Aegean Sea saw a “very unusual” spike in dolphin deaths following during massive Turkish naval exercises in the area. Fifteen dead dolphins have washed up on the eastern island of Samos and other parts of Greece’s Aegean coastline since late February, according to the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, compared to one or two during this time period last year.

Army helicopter crews helped fight the huge wildfire along South Korea’s eastern coast, reports Army Times. The coastal wildfire destroyed 120 homes and caused two deaths, reports AP.

The Navy’s new training program began this week, reports Navy Times. The  massive training overhaul of 51 revamped initial training pipelines mix traditional instructor-led classes with interactive simulations that let sailors get hands-on experience before they report to the fleet.

Aviation History Magazine remembers Capt. Walter M. Schirra Jr., best known as the fun-loving prankster of The Right Stuff. He was also the only astronaut to fly in each of America’s first three manned space programs.

USNI fleet tracker for week of April 8.

Contracts:

Marshall Communications Corp., Ashburn, Virginia, is awarded $9,805,873 for firm-fixed-price delivery order N0042119F0555 against a previously issued NASA Solutions for Enterprise-wide procurements contract (NNG15SD82B). This order provides for information technology supplies and services in support of the Teamcenter Product Lifecycle Management configuration for the Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers business process, enabling digital data updates, sharing and visibility across all levels of aviation maintenance. Work will be performed at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland (70 percent); and the Fleet Readiness Center East, Cherry Point, North Carolina (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in April 2020. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and Section 852 funds in the amount of $9,805,873 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

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