The Navy’s Terrible Accident Record Is Now Hidden From Public View

Websites appear and disappear every day. The internet is an amorphous beast, constantly being edited and updated. We accept these changes as simple fact, but crucial information is frequently removed from government websites—and small changes over time can have major downstream consequences.

I made the disturbing discovery recently that, amid a dramatic five-year spike in aviation accidents, the Navy has put aviation safety data that used to be public behind a wall. I bumped into this change while researching for the documentary film Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?, which uncovers the long history of negligence and institutional failure surrounding the 53E helicopter, the deadliest aircraft in the U.S. military.

I lost a high-school friend in the 2014 training accident that killed Wes Van Dorn, and soon after, I began investigating, and now a . Without that safety data, these stories would have been far more difficult to tell.