In response to a number of fatal and non-fatal crashes of US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft in the last week. The U.S. Commander, Naval Air Forces has ordered all naval aircraft, meaning United States Navy and United States Marine Corps, to take an operational pause on June 13th, 2022 to conduct a safety pause. The commander is US Vice Admiral Kenneth Whitesell.
The statement made moments ago:
“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.
In order to maintain the readiness of our force, we must ensure the safety of our people remains one of our top priorities.
Deployed units will conduct the safety pause at the earliest possible opportunity.”
Commander, Naval Air Forces (a.k.a.COMNAVAIRFOR, and CNAF; and dual-hatted as Commander, Naval Air Force, Pacific, and COMNAVAIRPAC) is the aviation Type Commander (TYCOM) for all United States Navy naval aviation units. Type Commanders are in Administrative Control (ADCON), and in some cases Operational Control (OPCON) of certain types of assets (ships, submarines, aircraft, and Fleet Marines) assigned to the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. AIRFOR is responsible for the materiel readiness, administration, training, and inspection of units/squadrons under their command, and for providing operationally ready air squadrons and aircraft carriers to the fleet. (Wiki)
Notable recent crashes include the fatal crash of a Marine Corps MV-22 in California and a non-fatal crash of a Navy MH-60S, only 30 miles from the crash site that took the lives of five Marines, all in the last four days.
