“Windshield Falls from F-15” Would Have Been a Serious Incident in a Civilian Area

An F-15 belonging to the U.S. military’s Kaneda airfield dropped its windshield during training maneuvers. It appears the windshield fell over the water in training airspace to the north, and no damage was caused to any ships. But if you think about what would happen if it had fallen in a civilian area, it sends a shiver down the spine.

Since the time when Okinawa was returned to Japanese control in 1972 up until the end of 2012, cases of parts falling from U.S. military vessels have occurred 43 times. By that count, it occurs nearly every year. As for the F-15 fighter, restricting it exclusively to cases in which only the windshield has fallen would put the total at four times since the planes were first deployed by Kaneda airfield in 1979; including other parts would raise the total to 13 times.

The windshield, which covers the cockpit, is made of clear, reinforced acrylic glass. The photo that appeared on the front page of this paper on Mar. 5 is still vividly in mind: the windshield blown off and the figure of a pilot flying, uncovered, over the skies of Kaneda.

As it is a U.S. military base within a densely populated residential area, Futenma airfield will be closed up. However, we cannot forget the fact that the very same danger exists around the edges of Kaneda as well. As for previous cases of a windshield falling, it has occurred twice within the base itself, and one other time, as with this instance, it occurred over open water; and yet, even considering things from that point of view, the concern that the same thing could happen in a civilian area is by no means unreasonable.

Of the U.S. military vessels belonging to Kaneda, in May of last year one F-15 went down over the Pacific Ocean and the pilot made an emergency exit. In August of that year, an HH-60 rescue helicopter crashed within Ginoza’s Camp Hansen and went up in flames. One crewman died as a result.

On the second of this month an MV-22 Osprey deployed by Futenma airfield touched down in Kaneda. White smoke was seen rising from its right-side engine.

The U.S. military has not disclosed the current incident of the falling windshield or the cause of MV-22 Osprey’s trouble.

…

These incidents coming to light involving U.S. military vehicles, such as cases of fallen windshields, are merely one part of the bigger picture. The suspicion lingers that lurking in the background of these incidents may be “cover-up incidents.”

There is a famous rule regarding workplace accidents known as Heinrich’s Law. It states that in the background of one major accident, there are 29 minor accidents, and within those 29 there are another 300 that cause a scare.

This law can be applied to various fields. And there is no doubt that behind the scenes of actual U.S. military vehicle accidents there are other minor accidents, and countless others still that would cause a scare.

Aviation critic Yoshitomo Aoki points out the following about the U.S. military: “If the frequency of incidents is within the average, they will consider it tolerable and invest nothing in accident prevention.” If this is true, it is something we absolutely cannot allow.

…

The cause of the incident in August 2004, in which a jumbo CH-53 helicopter belonging to Futenma crashed in Okinawa, was said to be due to the fact that maintenance personnel forgot to equip the “cotter pin” to the connecting bolt of the rear propeller — as difficult as that is to believe. It occurred when they were unable to get a set amount of sleep, as they were hurrying to make it in time for deployment to the Iraq War.

Fears over U.S. military vehicles are related to incidents of crashes, ones that are etched deeply into the collective memory of this prefecture’s citizens. In the background of the fallen windshield, aren’t there lots of hidden troubles that could invite other accidents? It’s by nothing more than chance that no one was injured this time. We can’t underestimate these incidents.