The collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet over Washington on Wednesday, which killed 67 people, comes at a terrible time for Army Aviation as accident rates have spiked to levels not seen since early in the century.

In 2024, Army Aviation recorded the highest number of Class A flight mishaps — the most serious type of aircraft accidents — since 2014 and the worst Class A flight mishap rate per 100,000 hours since 2007, according to new statistics from the Aviation Division of the Directorate of Analysis and Prevention at the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center. Class A mishaps are those that result in at least $2.5 million in property damage, the destruction of a manned aircraft, and/or a fatality or a catastrophic injury.

The Army suffered 15 Class A flight mishaps and two Class A aircraft ground mishaps last year compared to nine flight and one aircraft ground accidents in 2023, and just four flight and four ground mishaps in 2022. (The Army measures all years by fiscal year.) Nine soldiers,........

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