WASHINGTON — 298 Army and Air National Guard helicopter crashes between 2012 and 2021 were "mostly due to human error," according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
The mishaps killed 28 Army National Guard soldiers and Air National Guard airmen.
"It's a lot of accidents. Regardless of the numbers, it's important to see whether or not the organizations and units and the pilots are doing all they can to try to mitigate risk and prevent accidents," Cary Russell said, a director in the GAO's Defense Capabilities and Management team, in an interview with 13News Now.
Russell said many of the problems are directly related to the fact that National Guard troops are part-time and don't receive the same level of training as active-duty forces.
"One of the concerns is pilot proficiency. They've struggled to meet proficiency goals set for flying hours. One of the reasons is, the pilots, the majority of them are part-time pilots. So they have much more limited time to train," he said.
Forty-five of the incidents were labeled by the GAO as "serious" and resulted in $500,000 or more in property damage.
They all occurred during non-combat flights related to training, medical or rescue missions.
The GAO makes eight recommendations, which include urging the Army and Air Force to develop comprehensive strategies to address challenges that have hindered National Guard helicopter pilot training.