Navy pauses non-deployed flights in wake of aviation disasters

The Navy on Monday paused all non-deployed flight operations to focus on safety, just days after two fatal air incidents and the crash of an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter that all four members of the aircrew survived.

“As a result of recent crashes involving U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, Commander, Naval Air Forces has directed all non-deployed Navy aviation units to conduct a safety pause on June 13 in order to review risk-management practices and conduct training on threat and error-management processes,” Naval Air Forces said in a statement late last week.

“In order to maintain the readiness of our force, we must ensure the safety of our people remains one of our top priorities,” that statement said. “Deployed units will conduct the safety pause at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Aircraft crashes mounted rapidly in early June. In addition to the MH-60S crash, five Marines died in California when their MV-22B Osprey crashed, and a naval aviator died in the same state when his F/A18-E Super Hornet.

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