This is a list of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
Aircraft terminology Information on aircraft gives the type, and if available, the serial number of the operator in italics, the constructors number, also known as the manufacturer's serial number (c/n), exterior codes in apostrophes, nicknames (if any) in quotation marks, flight callsign in italics, and operating units.
1925 10 February The 1030 hrs. crash of a Curtiss JN-6H, AS-44806, ~ E of Brooks Field, Texas, kills instructor 1st Lt. Arthur L. Foster along with Maj. Lee O. Wright. Foster Field at Victoria, Texas is later dedicated to the pilot on 22 February 1942. Foster's widow, Mrs. Ruth Young Foster, of San Antonio, Texas, unveiled a plaque that read "Dedicated to the memory of Lieut. Arthur Lee Foster, a pioneer in aviation who gave his life teaching others to fly." Foster Field was designated Foster Air Force Base on an inactive status on 1 September 1952, by Department of the Air Force General Order No. 38, dated 29 August 1952. 16/17 April British airship R33 is torn loose from the mooring mast at RAF Pulham by gale force winds. Blown over to the Dutch coast, it rides the storm out with minor damage, finally returning more than a day later. 7 May Maj. Charles Calvert Benedict, (USMA, 1915), flying from Langley Field, Virginia, is killed in Eberhart S.E.5e, 22–320, of the Air Corps Tactical School, when he collides with a balloon. Maj. Carl "Tooey" Spatz recorded in his diary on 10 May 1925, "Benedict was killed Friday last by colliding with a balloon he was attacking. Inference: at our age muscle reactions lag behind mental impulses. Aviators after 30 years of age must allow a large majority of safety in their flying." Capt. Benedict was the first commander of Chanute Field, Illinois, and succeeded Spatz as training officer at the Issoudun, France, training centre when Spatz took command of the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center a second time. 13 June U.S. Navy Lieutenant Frank White, out of Bolling Field, develops engine trouble, attempts landing on Burlington Island, overshoots the island and crashes his De Havilland DH-4B fighter plane, 22-1186, into the Delaware River outside Bristol, Pennsylvania. Was rescued alive and in good spirits but died two weeks later in Harriman Hospital shortly after surgery due to internal injuries. 11 July "EL SEGUNDO, July 11 - Two aviators were killed when their airplane fell and burned near here today. The dead are: Lieutenant Hugh R. Denny, of the Aerial Reserves, Clover Field, Santa Monica, and M. D. McClennan, of Santa Monica, son of County Supervisor R. F. McClennan." In an unusual circumstance, the records of the United States Army Air Service did not record, nor do they reveal the type of aircraft involved in this incident, nor a serial number for the lost ship. "Neil D. McClellan" is listed as the pilot in this case, however. 31 August U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9, BuNo A-6878, '1', flying boat disappears on flight from San Francisco to Hawaii with reported loss of crew. The PN-9 was not actually lost, it was just overdue. After staying in the air for 25 hours and covering of the to Pearl Harbor, it landed safely at sea, the crew under command of Commander John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No. 2, rigged sails from fabric from the lower wing and sailed the final , reaching Kauai on 10 September. This stood as a seaplane distance flight record for several years. The aircraft is repaired and shipped to San Diego, California. 3 September U.S. Navy airship, ZR-1, crashes after encountering thunderstorms near Ava, Ohio after an in-flight break up due to cloud suck about 0445 hrs. Fourteen of 43 aboard are killed. The ship's commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. Zachary Lansdowne, is killed on what was to have been his final flight before reassignment to sea duty. 23 September The U.S. Navy flies 23 Curtiss CS-1 floatplanes to Bay Shore Park on the Chesapeake Bay, SE of Baltimore, Maryland, on a Friday with intention of an airshow demonstration before the 1925 Schneider Cup Race on Saturday, but that night gale force winds break mooring and anchor ropes on 17 of the biplanes and they are blown onto shore or dashed against seawalls, destroying seven and damaging ten. The next afternoon's Baltimore Evening Sun runs the headline "Plane Disaster in Harbor Called Hard Blow to Navy" and quotes the ever-outspoken General William "Billy" Mitchell calling the loss of the CS-1s "staggering", and blaming it on Navy mismanagement of its aviation program. 24 September During the 1925 Schneider Trophy race, British entry Supermarine S.4 loses control, is seen to side-slip, then pancakes into the Chesapeake Bay, landing on the front of its floats and overturning. Pilot Henri Biard swims free of airframe and is rescued. British officials intimate that the pilot banked too steeply and stalled, but designer R.J. Mitchell suspected that the cantilever wing design may have been partially at fault. Another British entry, Gloster IIIA, suffers broken strut between float and fuselage during taxi after landing from first run which allows nose to drop, propeller cuts into duralumin float, making airframe unable to compete. Lt. Jimmy Doolittle in U.S. Army Curtiss R3C-2, BuNo A6979, '3', wins competition with top speed of . 9 December The 111th Observation Squadron, Texas National Guard, suffers its first casualties when Capt. Emil Wagner and Lt. Luke McLaughlin put a Curtiss JN-6H, 38105,1925 US Army Air Service Accident Reports into a steep dive, whereupon the port wing collapses and the airframe plummets to the ground at Ellington Field, Texas. Both crew survive the impact but die later in a Houston hospital.Houston Chronicle, 10 December 1925.
1926 28 February "SEATTLE, Feb. 28. - Lieutenant Alonzo E. Bell was killed and his mechanician [sic], Charles Casincros, seriously hurt when their airplane went into a nose dive and dropped 100 feet to a concrete roadway at Sand Point field [sic] near here today. Two hundred persons witnessed the accident." 10 March U.S. Army airship TA-5, operating from Langley Field, Virginia, loses helium pressure in its non-rigid envelope and drops into the Chesapeake Bay, nose first. No injuries to the crew who are quickly picked up by a rescue boat. 22 March On its seventh test flight during tests at Taura Beach, Yokosuka, Japan, the Kaibo Gikai KB experimental flying boat is seen in a glide with both engines stopped, which steepens until it strikes the water in a near-vertical attitude, killing all four crew. Cause attributed to a malfunction of the flight control system. 10 May Maj. Harold C. Geiger is slightly injured in a collision between two planes at Langley Field, near Hampton, Virginia. While attending the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field, his Eberhart S.E.5e, 22-317, collides in mid-air during a flight formation with fellow student, Horace Meek Hickam's Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a, SO-8044. Hickam parachutes to safety, and narrowly escapes death. Hickam is initiated into the famed Caterpillar Club, a fraternal order with membership based on surviving an emergency parachute jump. Geiger was also a member of the Caterpillar Club. 11 August Second Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale was killed when the Douglas O-2 observation plane, 25–350, McCook Field project number P-441, he was testing went into an uncontrollable spin over McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. His parachute snagged on the wingstruts, preventing escape from the aircraft. Barksdale Field, later Barksdale Air Force Base, is named for him upon establishment at the Military Reservation, Bossier Parish, Louisiana on 2 February 1933. 27 August Commander John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No. 2, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, on a flight from NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., crashes in the Delaware River near the Naval Aircraft Factory dock, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when his aircraft suddenly nose-dives and receives injuries from which he dies on the same day. 12 September Curtiss XP-6, 25-423, the fourth Curtiss P-2 reengined with a Curtiss V-1570-1 Conqueror, suffers heavy damage in a landing that results in a ground loop at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, Michigan. Pilot was George C. Price.1926 US Army Air Service/USAAC Accident Reports Repaired, the aircraft will finish second in the 1927 Pursuit Plane Race at the National Air Races, at . To McCook Field, Ohio, with project number P-494. Will crash on 25 February 1929. 20 September The Great Miami hurricane makes landfall for the second time near Perdido Beach, Alabama, at ~ 22:00 UTC with winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). At NAS Pensacola, Florida, the storm destroys 30 seaplanes, several hangars, "and other equipment for a total damage of about $1,000,000."
1927 19 January Second of two Naval Aircraft Factory PN-7 flying boats, BuNo A-6617, delivered 6 June 1924, is wrecked this date at San Diego, California, with total flight time of 423:32 hours. February RAF Cierva C.6C autogyro, J8068, based on an Avro 504K fuselage, constructed by Avro at Hamble, Hampshire, flown by test pilot Frank T. Courtney, suffers spectacular crash at Hamble in which two opposing rotor blades come loose in flight after failure of tubular rivet fitted in the rotor blade spar root, coming down adjacent to rail line crossing the airfield. Pilot survives. February RAF Vickers Virginia Mk II J6857 of 7 Squadron is damaged in a forced landing at Fakenham, Norfolk. The aircraft is subsequently repaired and rebuilt to Mk VII standard. 27 February Capt. Clinton F. Woolsey, a Northport, Michigan native born in 1894, was considered one of the nation's best pilots in the Army Air Corps in the 1920s. He died a hero when he and his co-pilot, Lt. John W. Benton, were killed in a 1927 mid-air collision over Palomar Field near Buenos Aires during the first-ever U.S. international goodwill flight to 23 Central and South American countries. The tour took two months. Buenos Aires was the halfway mark. Woolsey probably could have parachuted to safety but apparently chose to ride his amphibian biplane down in an attempt to land because Benton was on the wing, without his chute, attempting to lower the landing gear by hand. "I have never witnessed a more courageous sacrifice," said Capt. Ira Eaker, who witnessed the crash from his plane. Flight Commander Herbert Dargue and Lt. Ennis Whitehead bailed out of Loening OA-1A "New York", while Woolsey and Benton rode OA-1A "Detroit" in. 13 March First of two Naval Aircraft Factory PN-8 flying boats, BuNo A-6799, delivered 8 May 1925, intended for a flight by the Navy from San Francisco to Hawaii, is wrecked while being transported fully assembled on the deck of the . Hit by heavy seas, the plane is lifted against its tie-down cables, which cut through the hull, airframe written off with 32:48 flying hours. 21 March U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9, BuNo A-6878, flying boat which executed record trip from San Francisco to Hawaii in August–September 1925, repaired and shipped to San Diego, California, crashes and sinks in the ocean this date with total flight time of 190:28 hours. 21 April Their Royal Highnesses visit Australia to open the new Parliament House in Canberra. On this date, during their official visit to Melbourne, "and just as the royal procession was turning from St Kilda Road into the grounds of Government House, two DH.9 aircraft of the RAAF flypast collided. The crowd of many thousands watched as A6-5 and A6-26 disintegrated and plummeted to earth in the vicinity of Sturt Street, South Melbourne. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the crowd but all four RAAF aircrew were killed making it the worst aircraft accident in Australia to that time."