Recent string of deadly military crashes is no accident
Responsible StatecraftJun 12, 2022
5 Marines Confirmed Dead After Helicopter Crash
The Facts
All five US Marines aboard a helicopter that went missing on its way to San Diego were confirmed dead Thursday.
The five Marines belonged to the Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. Their names have not yet been released.
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
Deadly military aircraft crashes are too common. The US military's trend of focusing more on shiny new emerging technologies and outsourcing instead of pilot training and safety is to blame for this epidemic of accidents. Investing more resources into pilot training and maintenance should be a greater priority.
Pro-establishment narrative
Even outside of war, military operations are inherently risky. While it's unfortunate that service members can be injured or die in military operations, mishaps are expected in a risky business. Despite this, the number of deaths due to mishaps is trending downward and the US military is working to bring the number of casualties from accidents down to zero by improving training resources for troops.
Nerd narrative
There's a 27% chance that US Non-Overseas Contingency operations military deaths will exceed 3K in any calendar year before (and including) 2031, according to the Metaculus prediction community.