Marine Corps Orders 2-Day Safety Course for All Pilots

Because a recent string of military aircraft accidents can be largely blamed on human error, the commandant of the Marine Corps on Tuesday ordered all Marine pilots to leave their cockpits for a two-day safety refresher course over the next two weeks.

Gen. Alfred M. Gray Jr. said in the seven recent accidents, which claimed the lives of 45 Marines, “air crew error predominates and most likely will be a primary cause in all these mishaps.”

Aircraft and crews based at Tustin and El Toro Marine Corps air stations in Orange County have been involved in three of the fatal helicopter accidents, accounting for 25 of the fatalities. One of the accidents involved a Marine Corps reserve unit based at El Toro, and the other two in South Korea involved personnel and an aircraft from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at El Toro and Tustin.

“It is time to pause, catch our breath and come to grips with the devastating trend established this year,” Gray said in a Teletype message to Marine bases worldwide. “To that end, within the next two weeks, all aviation units will conduct a two-day safety stand-down.

“Our machines are not letting us down; we are letting ourselves down,” Gray said.

Maj. Gen. Donald E.P. Miller, commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at El Toro, said he has instructed his group and squadron commanders to complete the refresher course by June 17.

“I would like to shut them all down at once for the two days of instruction, but that is impossible,” Miller said, adding that he has some aircraft in the middle of missions. “I think it is a hell of a good idea. I think we have to stop once in a while and say, ‘Are we doing this right?’ ”

Gray’s order affects 1,200 Marine Corps fighters, observation planes and helicopters in 87 aviation squadrons worldwide.

“His concern is the number of deaths so far this year,” said Lt. Col. Fred Peck in Washington. Peck said Gray’s action ordering all Marine Corps aviators to the classroom was unprecedented.

“It has been done squadron-wide or even wing-wide, but, the best I can determine, never before Marine Corps-wide,” he said.

The order came less than six months after Marine Corps aviators completed the safest flying year ever. Only 27 Marines died in all of 1988.

“The preservation of our most precious war-fighting assets, our Marines, demands that we be ruthlessly honest with ourselves, (ensure) strict accountability and redirect ourselves to excellence,” Gray concluded in his message.

Gray said the refresher course will re-examine and emphasize the “air crew, wingman, and supervisory functions surrounding the conduct of a professional flight--from schedule writing through final shut down. . . . “

On March 17, a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter assigned to an annual combat readiness exercise in South Korea crashed and killed four Marines from El Toro. Three days later, three more El Toro Marines died in the crash of a CH-53 Sea Stallion during the same exercise. In all, 19 Marines were killed in the crash of the CH-53. Both of those accidents happened when the weather was good and the skies clear.

A collision on May 27 of two CH-46 helicopters near Fallon, Nev., killed two female Marine reservists stationed at El Toro. That accident also occurred on a clear day. The two aircraft were flying in formation when the blade of one helicopter clipped the other, killing the two Marines.

On May 3, five Marines died when a Huey helicopter crashed during a nighttime exercise in France.

The most recent Marine helicopter accident occurred May 30 when a CH-46 crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a takeoff from the cruiser Denver south of Okinawa. Thirteen Marines and a sailor from Huntington Beach were killed and eight others were rescued, several of them injured.

The only fixed-wing aircraft accident this year involved a AV-8B Harrier that crashed at Parris Island, S.C., and killed the pilot.

It is unusual for the military to discuss the causes of accidents before the official investigation is completed. Those investigations can take as long as a year. But a Marine source said Gray’s comment that pilot error is the most likely cause of the fatal accidents this year was “necessary under the circumstances.”