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US Navy pilots go on strike over unsafe conditions

Wednesday, 05 April 2017 9:07 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 05 April 2017 9:22 AM ]

US Navy pilots prepare before boarding a T-45 Goshawk trainer jet. (File Photo)

Over 100 US Navy instructor pilots have staged a strike over unsafe flying conditions, grounding hundreds of training flights, according to a new report.

The strike began at the end of last week, when the airmen said they would perform no more flights until officials fixed the technical problems plaguing their aircraft, Fox News reported Tuesday, citing several instructor pilots.

According to the flight instructors, the 30-year old T-45 Goshawk training jets’ oxygen systems needed urgent attention before causing fatal incidents.

Physiological episodes like “Histotoxic hypoxia,” which threatens the pilots' lives and is in part caused by the oxygen system’s malfunction, have almost quadrupled in the T-45 training jets over the past half a decade, the report stated.

Last year, at least 10 such incidents were reported on T-45s.

Some flight instructors confirmed to Fox News that the Navy’s entire fleet of the ageing jets was going to be grounded over the coming days.

Marine 1st Lieutenant Michael Pence, son of Vice President Mike Pence, was also among the striking pilots, a fact that is likely to put extra pressure on the Pentagon to address the situation.

US Navy crew members stand next to an F/A-18 fighter on the deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during a South Korea-US joint military exercise in seas east of the Korean Peninsula, on March 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, commander of the US naval air forces, said the technical issue had become the naval aviation’s “number one safety priority.”

Navy spokeswoman Commander Jeannie Groeneveld admitted that 40 percent of the instructor pilots refused to fly on Tuesday. A flight instructor put the number at around 75 percent.

The walkout drew reactions from ranking members of the congressional armed services committees.

“There is no question that there are problems that are being covered up,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said. “I am very concerned about the issue. It’s been getting worse over time and if you look at the statistics, the older airplanes are having bigger problems than newer airplanes.”

Senator John McCain, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that safety concerns needed to be addressed “swiftly and decisively.”

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