(Tony Williams) wrote:

:"Stephen D. Poe" wrote in message ...
:
: To quote a recent article:
: "They know this drill all too well because the Harrier is the most
: dangerous airplane flying in the U.S. military today.
:
: Over the last three decades, it has amassed the highest rate of major
: accidents of any Air Force, Navy, Army or Marine plane now in service.
: Forty-five Marines have died in 143 noncombat accidents since the corps
: bought the so-called jump jet from the British in 1971. More than a
: third of the fleet has been lost to accidents.
:
:As a matter of interest, how does that compare with the accident rate
:experienced with conventional naval/marine planes flying from
:carriers?

AV-8 12/100,000 flight hours
F/A-18 3/100,000 flight hours

So the AV-8 accident rate is about 4 times higher than conventional
carrier air. To put things further in perspective, over 2/3 of the
AV-8 accidents are mechanicals and less than 1/3 are pilot error.
Reverse that for most other carrier aircraft (around 2/3 of the
accidents are pilot error).

Looking at those numbers, what you see is that the pilot error rate
for the AV-8 is around twice what it is in the F/A-18 (an aircraft
noted for the heavy workload it imposes on the pilot - a significant
number (in fact it's the highest single cause) of F/A-18 Class A
accidents are CFIT). So the AV-8 is significantly harder to fly. You
also see a mechanical accident rate of something like eight times that
of the F/A-18, so the AV-8 is *hugely* less reliable. This is
probably only to be expected from the significantly more mechanically
complex AV-8 (hover is hard), particularly given the much older engine
technology and the fact that there is only one engine.

As a benchmark, the old F-8 Crusader used to run an accident rate of
around 14/100,000 flight hours.

--
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to
live in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Dryden