The accidents led to wholesale changes in leadership for the 7th Fleet based in the region, including a new commander, Vice Adm. Phil Sawyer, who was tasked with returning his fleet to a high state of readiness in the world’s most dangerous seas.
As the military faces an alarming uptick in plane crashes and other aviation-related mishaps, some fatal, the Government Accountability Office took the Army, Navy and Air Force to task for not tracking aviation mishap data in the same way.