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Comment by adewinter | Hacker News Reader

"Military aviation accidents have killed 224 pilots or aircrew, destroyed 186 aircraft, and cost more than $11.6 billion since 2013"[1]

"Combined with information from the Federal Aviation Administration, an average of 383 pilots die every year in the US." [2]

[1] https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-aviation-mishaps-de...

[2] https://www.skytough.com/post/how-many-pilots-die-a-year

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That is 32 pilots or aircrew killed in military aviation accidents total per year from 2013-2020. The article claims 30 pilot die every year from spatial disorientation alone. I find it unlikely that 30 out of 32 deaths of "pilots and crew" are pilots, and also unlikely that all of these accidents are due to spatial disorientation.

(Edit- just read the source article- https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19990606&slug... it says 30 lives, not 30 pilots... the posted article got it wrong. Even then, I have some doubts as to the number, but its definitely closer to the truth).

I think the sentence is just poorly worded. I see this "it costs $300 per year" and "30 lives" as two separate ideas. I think we might just be assuming that its also 30 lives per year, when it might just have been $300 million and 30 lives in recent years. I struggled with that sentence too, so I could also be totally wrong.

It costs a lot of money to train a military pilot. All thr trainig, all the simulators, even salary.

Then fuel for hours of flight every year. Aircraft mainenance.

That's why everyone tries to save them when shot down (also they know secrets).

As far as journalism goes these days, that looks like an accurate portrayal of the numbers.

So in this case, they are trying to say that this costs the U.S. military an estimated $300 million every year, and also kills 30 (non-military and military combined) pilots?

I think they're two separate ideas maybe. The "per year" in that sentence is ambiguous. It's unclear if it applies to the $300 million, or both that and the 30 lives.

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