US Navy records most Class A incidents in a decade — Defense News

In fiscal year 2026, the US Navy recorded the highest number of unplanned catastrophic events involving aircraft and ships in the past ten years. As Defense News reports, the Naval Safety Command released data on 16 Class A aviation incidents and 11 Class A incidents involving ships.

Criteria for Class A incidents

The US Navy classifies as such incidents cases that caused damage worth at least $2.5 million or the destruction of an aircraft, as well as events involving fatalities or people with permanent total disability.

The statistics included several cases in the Middle East during the war with Iran. On July 1, a US Navy crew member went missing after an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter made an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea. The helicopter was assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. The sailor was later presumed dead, while the other three crew members were rescued. The Navy said the incident was not related to combat operations and that its cause is under investigation.

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Aircraft carrier fire and landing incident

On March 12, a non-combat fire broke out in the main laundry aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which was operating in the Red Sea. Three sailors were injured, one of whom was evacuated for medical care. Firefighting lasted more than 30 hours, and the damage affected berthing spaces for more than 600 sailors, forcing many to sleep on the floor and on tables. The ship left its area of operations for several days for maintenance in Split, Croatia.

On September 28, off the coast of Virginia, two pilots ejected when an E/A-18G Growler was landing on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier due to an arresting gear malfunction. Six sailors and two aviators were injured. Separately, on July 1, the left engine of an F/A-18F Super Hornet caught fire during a training flight over a US Navy air base in Nevada, but the crew landed the aircraft safely and was not injured.