House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is seeking to launch a blue-ribbon commission to study the recent uptick in fatal military aviation accidents.

Smith on May 7 filed an amendment to the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would create an independent National Commission on Military Aviation Safety. The panel would review military aviation mishaps for the past five years, compare the accident rate to historic averages, attempt to find causes for the accidents and make recommendations on how to improve aviation safety.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Photo from Facebook profile.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Photo from Facebook profile.

“It is time to establish an independent National Commission on Military Aviation Safety, so that we can understand exactly what causes are contributing to military aviation accidents, how current rates compare to historic averages, and what steps we can take to improve military aviation safety,” Smith said in a prepared statement.

“It is essential for our aviators and their families—as well as for our military’s ability to recruit, retain, and perform its mission—that Congress have an authoritative, objective, apolitical look at the causes of this problem so that we can figure out what is going wrong and what actions need to be taken,” he added.

The committee will be comprised of eight members, four of which will be presidential appointments, according to the amendment. The chair and ranking member of both the House and Senate Armed Services committees will each appoint a member.

A report should be complete and submitted to the president and defense committees no later than Feb. 1, 2020.

Nine military aircraft have crashed in the past month killing 16 U.S. servicemembers, but Pentagon chief spokeswoman Dana White said recently it “is not a crisis” because the accidents involved different aircraft from various services, each of which has its own issues.

“This is not a crisis, but it is a crisis for each of these families and we owe them a full investigation and to understand what’s going on,” White said during a press conference at the Pentagon last week.

HASC is set to mark up its version of the 2019 NDAA on May 9, beginning at 10 a.m.