OPNAVINST 3750.6 and the Navy aviation safety program

OPNAVINST 3750.6 is the Chief of Naval Operations instruction that establishes the Naval Aviation Safety Program, the system under which every Navy and Marine Corps aviation mishap and hazard is reported, investigated, and turned into a correction. The current revision is OPNAVINST 3750.6T, dated October 24, 2024, and the Naval Safety Command hosts its companion manual, OPNAV M-3750.6, issued the same day. The title "naval aviation safety management system," which the instruction carried from 2014 until 2024, points to the same program. This page covers the instruction and the manual, the mishap classes A through E and their current thresholds, hazard reports, the Aviation Safety Officer, the Naval Safety Command's role, the Grampaw Pettibone tie, and how the safety program meets the standardization program described in what NATOPS is.

The instruction and the manual

The Navy now splits the program into a short instruction and a long manual. ALNAV 040/25, a Secretary of the Navy message dated May 13, 2025, cites OPNAVINST 3750.6T, dated October 24, 2024, and gives its title as the Naval Aviation Safety Program. The manual's foreword, signed by the Special Assistant for Safety Matters, says OPNAV M-3750.6 implements the policy set forth in the instruction; the foreword prints the number as "3650.6T," a typographical slip, since the RMI user administrator acknowledgement template in the manual's Appendix 11E, the ALNAV, and the Naval Safety Command's resource listings all use 3750.6T. The manual is issued under SECNAVINST 5100.10L and aligned with DoD Instruction 6055.07.

The foreword states the scope. The program "encompasses all activities which detect, contain, or eliminate hazards in naval aviation," and the manual contains requirements, delineates responsibilities, and issues policy guidance for aviation mishap investigations and safety management for Navy and Marine Corps aviation activities worldwide. It is mandatory for all military and civilian personnel in every Navy and Marine Corps aviation activity, and for some organizations that are not traditional aviation activities but operate manned aircraft or unmanned aircraft systems. The manual is posted on the Department of the Navy Issuances website with unlimited distribution.

The manual has 11 chapters, from general information and event classification through phone reports, investigations, hazard reports, endorsements, and account management for the Risk Management Information (RMI) system.

ALNAV 052/16, dated July 27, 2016, cites OPNAVINST 3750.6S, Naval Aviation Safety Management System, dated May 13, 2014. A Navy statement for the record to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, dated June 13, 2018, says the mishap notification and reporting process is governed by the OPNAV 3750.6 series, Naval Aviation Safety Management System. Revision T dropped "Management System" from the title, but paragraph 102 of the manual says every Navy command must have a Safety Management System (SMS) or Safety Management Plan, and that the Naval Aviation Safety Program is an essential part of an aviation unit's SMS.

Who runs the program

Paragraph 101 of OPNAV M-3750.6 says the Commander, Naval Safety Command (COMNAVSAFECOM), who is also the Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Safety Matters, CNO N09F, manages the program, and that because safety is an inherent responsibility of commanders, every commander in the chain carries it out.

Paragraph 102 states the premise: the program "is based on the concept that mishaps are preventable," and nothing just happens. Paragraph 103 requires every aviation command to report and keep records of all mishaps, hazards, and incidents so that trends can be analyzed (103c), to take effective corrective action (103e), and to protect personnel from coercion, discrimination, or reprisal for reporting or investigating mishaps and hazards (103f).

The responsibilities section assigns the program down the chain. Aircraft controlling custodians, the type commanders and equivalents that own aircraft, must establish and maintain a command aviation safety program managed by a trained Aviation Safety Officer and aligned with the command's SMS. Commanders of air stations and expeditionary airfields must do the same, maintain a pre-mishap plan that coordinates airfield operations, tenants, and nearby commands, and report mishaps in their area.

Mishap classes A through E and the current thresholds

Paragraph 316 of OPNAV M-3750.6 defines five classes. The table gives the thresholds as the manual states them.

Three details in the text matter. A destroyed or missing unmanned aerial vehicle is not a Class A unless the cost exceeds $2.5 million or there is a fatality or permanent total disability. Class D injuries may include up to one day away from work; any additional day makes the event at least a Class C. And Class E reporting is mandatory in naval aviation, with a note that Class E mishaps are not privileged and are treated as hazard reports with cost or a first-aid injury. Chapter 3 also sorts mishaps by intent for flight into flight mishaps, flight-related mishaps, and aviation ground mishaps.

The dollar figures rose in 2019. The 2018 House statement defined Class A as $2 million or more, Class B as at least $500,000 but less than $2 million, and Class C as $50,000 to $500,000, and said Class A mishaps accounted for 94 percent of the $4.11 billion cost of aviation mishaps from fiscal year 2013 to 2017. A Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point mishap reporting guide that shows the $2.5 million Class A figure carries a note that the classification threshold changes took effect on October 1, 2019 under ALSAFE 19/016. The DoD-level instruction the manual aligns with, DoD Instruction 6055.07, still prints the older figures in its glossary as of Change 2 of June 11, 2019: $2 million, $500,000, $50,000, and $20,000. The post on DoD and Army mishap classes covers the other services.

The reporting clocks

Chapter 4 of OPNAV M-3750.6 sets the deadlines. Paragraph 403 says all Class A mishaps require a telephone report to the Naval Safety Command, and Class A, B, and C mishaps require a preliminary message (PM). Paragraph 405 sets the times: telephone reports within 60 minutes of occurrence for all Class A mishaps, with further calls as information becomes available, and a PM entered in RMI within 24 hours for all Class A, B, and C mishaps. PMs are described as time-sensitive, non-privileged initial notifications. Paragraph 303 requires the safety investigation report (SIR) or hazard report to be submitted into RMI within 30 calendar days of the event or hazard identification, with extensions approved by the convening authority. Under paragraph 606, hazard reports with recommendations carrying a Risk Assessment Code (RAC) of 1 or 2 are due within 72 hours of detecting the hazard.

The 2018 House statement shows how the clocks have changed. It described a telephone call to the Naval Safety Center within one hour of a Class A mishap, then a notification in the Web-Enabled Safety System within four hours for Class A and B and 24 hours for Class C. The 2024 manual replaces WESS with RMI and sets a single 24-hour PM clock. ALNAV 040/25 completes the transition: it names RMI the sole official Department of the Navy database for mishap reporting and safety program management, requires every Navy and Marine Corps organization to move to RMI by January 1, 2026, and prohibits entering safety information into any other system after that date.

Who investigates is also fixed. The aircraft controlling custodian is always the convening authority for Class A and B mishaps and may delegate Class C, D, and E investigations and hazard reports to subordinate commands, but Class A and B mishaps must not be delegated. Paragraph 507 assigns aviation mishap boards (AMBs) to all Class A, B, and C mishaps except Class C bird or animal strike, laser strike, or minor-injury mishaps, and single investigating officers to hazards, Class D and E, and those Class C mishaps. Only in a designated combat zone may a Class B through E board be one investigating officer plus a flight surgeon or aerospace physician assistant (paragraph 413b(1)). For a manned aircraft mishap, at least one board member must be a pilot or naval flight officer who is NATOPS-qualified in the model aircraft involved. Chapter 1 describes the privilege that protects the report: the non-privileged portions are released only after CNO N09F signs the final endorsement.

Hazard reports

Chapter 6 of OPNAV M-3750.6 governs hazard reports, which the fleet calls HAZREPs. Paragraph 601 defines an aviation hazard as any real or potential condition that can cause injury or death, damage to or loss of equipment or property, mission degradation, or damage to the environment, but has not met mishap thresholds, and a near miss as an undesired event that, under slightly different circumstances, would have caused harm.

The chapter lists four purposes for a HAZREP: to report a hazard and the remedial action taken so others may act the same way; to report a hazard and recommend corrective action to others; to report a hazard so another organization may act; and to document a continuing hazard to establish risk severity and exposure. Paragraph 602 says everyone associated with naval aviation has an obligation to report hazards and that local programs such as Flash Reports are not a substitute for the reports the manual requires. Paragraph 604 says anyone can initiate a HAZREP, and paragraph 605 requires the originator to assign a risk assessment code. Reports with a code of 1 or 2, or that recommend action by another command, require endorsements.

Privilege draws the line between a HAZREP and a mishap report. HAZREPs, the chapter says, are by definition not privileged and no promise of confidentiality is offered, but they "must not be used for any administratively or judicially adverse process," including Field Naval Aviator Evaluation Boards. The manual adds a separate channel, the All-Hands Safety Action Program (ASAP), a tool that lets aviation personnel quickly report hazards.

The Aviation Safety Officer

The Aviation Safety Officer (ASO) is the officer the manual puts in charge of the squadron's program, and the manual is specific about who may hold the job. Paragraph 107f lists the commands with ASO billets, from aircraft controlling custodians and wings to air stations and every aircraft reporting custodian. With limited exceptions, those commanders must assign only graduates of the Naval School of Aviation Safety who are naval aviators or naval flight officers to the primary ASO billet in manned aircraft squadrons. Air station commanders who are not reporting custodians may make the ASO a collateral duty, and experienced unmanned aircraft officers who are graduates fill the ASO billet in UAS units. Commands are told to make every effort to assign an officer who attended the school in the past 4 years. Under paragraph 107f(2)(c), a Civil Service employee serving as ASO should re-attend the course every 8 years.

The Naval Safety Command's course descriptions describe the Aviation Safety Officer Course as a 23-day course designed to prepare aviation safety officers, as defined in OPNAVINST 3750, to assist commanders in conducting aggressive mishap prevention programs. A graduate can investigate mishaps, administer a squadron mishap prevention program, identify hazards, manage risks, and analyze safety information. Eligibility is limited to deployment-experienced naval aviators or naval flight officers at the rank of lieutenant or lieutenant commander, or Marine captain or major, plus medical officers in billets requiring the course. The Aviation Safety Command Course is a six-day course for commanding officers, executive officers, and officers screened for command, and it includes the senior member training that qualifies a graduate to lead an aircraft mishap board.

The school's course information page says the ASO course content primarily derives from the OPNAVINST 3750.6 series and tells students to review its first three chapters before arriving. Graduates are designated Operational Risk Management Assistants in the Navy or Risk Management Instructors in the Marine Corps, and every student must register for RMI accounts before the course.

The Naval Safety Command and the school

The Naval Safety Command's role runs through the manual: it receives the Class A telephone reports, provides on-site investigative assistance on request, hosts the RMI access links, keeps the records that privilege protects, and is required to maintain membership on NATOPS boards and councils.

The school's history page traces the institution. In the early 1950s the Navy and the other services worked with the University of Southern California to educate aviation safety officers, and until 1965 USC was the single source. In 1965 the Navy established its own aviation safety school at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. In 1995 the program became the School of Aviation Safety. In October 2004 the school relocated to Pensacola, and in October 2013 it aligned with the Naval Safety Center, the predecessor of the Naval Safety Command. The page says the school educates more than 750 Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard officers each year, plus members of NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and foreign services.

The same page gives the record the program measures itself against. In 1945 there were 13,201 Class A non-combat mishaps, a rate of 83.3 per 100,000 flight hours, with 6,497 aircraft destroyed and 3,171 pilots and aircrew killed. From 1999 to 2003 naval aviation averaged 1.89 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours. In May 2003 the Secretary of Defense challenged the department to cut mishaps by 50 percent, and a Marine Corps message on the Aviation Safety Awareness Program traces the Navy's 2006 reporting program, modeled on the FAA's Aviation Safety Action Program, to that challenge.

The Grampaw Pettibone tie

Grampaw Pettibone is the Naval Aviation News character whose column retells mishaps for aircrew, and the Navy named its aviation safety awareness awards after him. ALSAFE 016/26, a Naval Safety Command message dated April 14, 2026, announces the fiscal year 2025 winners on behalf of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commander, Naval Safety Command. The awards go to the organizations and individuals who contribute the most toward aviation safety awareness through publications and media resources, and the message says publishing stories of miscues and mishaps keeps aviators from learning the hard way and from a tongue-lashing by "the famous curmudgeon" of Naval Aviation News. Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 won the FY 2025 organization award. The awards are governed by OPNAVINST 1650.28C of February 6, 2024.

Two earlier awards show how an article feeds the program. A Navy story on the FY 2019 awards says the individual award went to a lieutenant from Command and Control Squadron (VAW) 121 for an article on a May 2019 over-pressurization event aboard an E-2D Hawkeye, and that the incident, the resulting reports, and the article produced a new NATOPS procedure to identify and respond to over-pressurization more quickly. The story said the article was slated to run in the spring 2020 issue of Approach, the safety center's aviation magazine. A NAVAIR story dated August 15, 2022 records the 2021 individual award for an Approach article by the safety officer of Scientific Development Squadron 1, who was also the squadron's NATOPS officer, about a P-3C landing on two blown nose-wheel tires.

The column itself keeps the standard visible: an August 6, 2025 column recounts a T-34C NATOPS evaluator who launched solo while out of currency.

How the safety program relates to NATOPS

OPNAVINST 3750.6 and OPNAVINST 3710.7 are separate instructions with separate owners, but the manual ties them at four points. First, the Naval Safety Command must maintain membership on NATOPS boards and councils. Second, a mishap board for a manned aircraft must include a pilot or naval flight officer who is NATOPS-qualified in the model, and the board's evidence list for a carrier landing mishap includes the items requested by section VII of the LSO NATOPS Manual. Third, chapter 2 lists NATOPS checks among a unit's Level 1 self-assessments and NATOPS and Model Manager unit evaluations among its Level 3 third-party assessments. Fourth, the manual's resource list links the NATOPS General Series manuals it relies on, from the CV NATOPS Manual to the airfield operations manual, into the Airworthiness website library.

The traffic runs the other way too. CNAF M-3710.7, the NATOPS general manual dated February 7, 2025, carries the All-Hands Safety Action Program in paragraph 3.15, and the Marine Corps message above, MARADMIN 202/19, said participation was required by paragraph 3.15 of the May 5, 2016 edition of CNAF M-3710.7. The FY 2019 award story shows the loop closing: a mishap reported under 3750.6 became an article slated for Approach, and the article and the reports behind it became a NATOPS procedure. The post on OPNAVINST 3710.7 and CNAF M-3710.7 covers the standardization side.

What to check

• Which revision is cited, 3750.6S of May 13, 2014 under the title Naval Aviation Safety Management System, or 3750.6T of October 24, 2024 under the title Naval Aviation Safety Program?
• Do the thresholds quoted match OPNAV M-3750.6 paragraph 316, or an older or DoD-level set? The Navy's $2.5 million Class A figure dates from October 1, 2019.
• Was the Class A telephone report made within 60 minutes and the preliminary message entered in RMI within 24 hours?
• Is the report in RMI? ALNAV 040/25 prohibits entering safety information into any other system after January 1, 2026.
• Does the squadron's primary ASO meet paragraph 107f, a Naval School of Aviation Safety graduate who is a naval aviator or naval flight officer, and did the command make every effort to assign one who attended the course within 4 years?
• Is a HAZREP being used in any administrative or judicial process? Chapter 6 forbids it.

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Questions people ask

What is OPNAVINST 3750.6?

OPNAVINST 3750.6 is the Chief of Naval Operations instruction that establishes the Naval Aviation Safety Program for the Navy and Marine Corps. The current revision is OPNAVINST 3750.6T, dated October 24, 2024, which ALNAV 040/25 cites under the title Naval Aviation Safety Program. The detailed requirements sit in OPNAV M-3750.6, a manual of the same date hosted by the Naval Safety Command, which says it implements the instruction's policy and is mandatory for every Navy and Marine Corps aviation activity.

What is the Naval Aviation Safety Management System?

Naval Aviation Safety Management System was the title of the previous revision, OPNAVINST 3750.6S, which ALNAV 052/16 dates to May 13, 2014. A June 13, 2018 Navy statement to a House Armed Services subcommittee cites the 3750.6 series under that title, and the Naval School of Aviation Safety still describes its ASO course content as derived from it. The October 24, 2024 revision T and its manual use the title Naval Aviation Safety Program.

What is a Class A mishap in the Navy?

OPNAV M-3750.6 paragraph 316 defines a Class A mishap as one in which the total cost of damage to DoD or non-DoD property or aircraft is $2.5 million or more, or a naval aircraft is destroyed or missing, or any fatality or permanent total disability results from the direct involvement of naval aircraft. A destroyed or missing unmanned aircraft is not a Class A unless the cost exceeds $2.5 million or there is a fatality or permanent total disability.

What are the Navy mishap classes A through E?

OPNAV M-3750.6 grades aviation mishaps by cost and injury. Class A is $2.5 million or more, a destroyed naval aircraft, a death, or permanent total disability. Class B is $600,000 to under $2.5 million, permanent partial disability, or three or more people hospitalized. Class C is $60,000 to under $600,000 or an injury with one or more days away from work. Class D is $25,000 to under $60,000 or a recordable injury beyond first aid. Class E is any cost above $0 but under $25,000 or a first-aid injury.

How quickly must a Navy aviation mishap be reported?

OPNAV M-3750.6 paragraph 405 requires a telephone report to the Naval Safety Command within 60 minutes for every Class A mishap, and a preliminary message in the Risk Management Information system within 24 hours for Class A, B, and C mishaps. Paragraph 303 requires the safety investigation report or hazard report in RMI within 30 calendar days, and paragraph 606 makes hazard reports with Risk Assessment Code 1 or 2 due within 72 hours of detecting the hazard. The aircraft controlling custodian is always the convening authority for Class A and B mishaps.

What is a HAZREP in naval aviation?

A HAZREP is a hazard report. Chapter 6 of OPNAV M-3750.6 defines an aviation hazard as any real or potential condition that can cause injury or death, damage or loss of equipment, mission degradation, or environmental damage but has not met mishap thresholds. The chapter says everyone associated with naval aviation has an obligation to report hazards, lists four purposes for a HAZREP, and says HAZREPs are not privileged but must not be used for any administratively or judicially adverse process.

What is an Aviation Safety Officer?

The Aviation Safety Officer is the officer who manages a command's aviation safety program under OPNAV M-3750.6. The manual says that, with limited exceptions, only graduates of the Naval School of Aviation Safety who are naval aviators or naval flight officers may fill the primary ASO billet in a manned aircraft squadron, and that a Civil Service employee serving as ASO should re-attend the course every 8 years. The Naval Safety Command describes the ASO course as a 23-day program that teaches mishap investigation, hazard identification, risk management, and program administration.

What does the Naval Safety Command do in aviation safety?

OPNAV M-3750.6 says the Commander, Naval Safety Command, who is also the Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Safety Matters (N09F), manages the Naval Aviation Safety Program. The command receives Class A telephone reports, provides on-site investigative assistance when requested, hosts the Risk Management Information system links, keeps membership on NATOPS boards and councils, and runs the Naval School of Aviation Safety, which its history page says has been aligned with the safety organization since October 2013.

What is the Grampaw Pettibone award?

The Grampaw Pettibone awards are presented by the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commander, Naval Safety Command to the organizations and individuals who contribute the most toward aviation safety awareness through publications and media resources. ALSAFE 016/26, dated April 14, 2026, names the fiscal year 2025 winners and says the award takes its name from the curmudgeon of Naval Aviation News, whose column retells mishaps. A 2020 Navy story records that one winning article led to a new NATOPS procedure.

How does OPNAVINST 3750.6 relate to NATOPS?

The two programs share people and evidence. OPNAV M-3750.6 requires the Naval Safety Command to maintain membership on NATOPS boards and councils, requires at least one aviation mishap board member to be NATOPS-qualified in the model involved, lists NATOPS checks as a Level 1 self-assessment and NATOPS and Model Manager unit evaluations as Level 3 third-party assessments, and collects the items requested by section VII of the LSO NATOPS Manual after a carrier landing mishap. CNAF M-3710.7, the NATOPS general manual, carries the All-Hands Safety Action Program in paragraph 3.15.

Sources

1. 1OPNAV M-3750.6, Naval Aviation Safety Program (October 24, 2024) · Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, hosted by Naval Safety Command
2. 2ALNAV 040/25, Mandatory Use of the Risk Management Information System (May 13, 2025) · Secretary of the Navy, hosted by MyNavy HR
3. 3ALNAV 052/16, Guidance on Procurement and Operation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (July 27, 2016) · Secretary of the Navy, hosted by MyNavy HR
4. 4Naval School of Aviation Safety: Course Descriptions · Naval Safety Command
5. 5Naval School of Aviation Safety: Course Information · Naval Safety Command
6. 6Naval School of Aviation Safety: History · Naval Safety Command
7. 7ALSAFE 016/26, Grampaw Pettibone Awards for FY 2025 (April 14, 2026) · Commander, Naval Safety Command
8. 8FY 19 Grampaw Pettibone Award Winners Announced · U.S. Navy
9. 9Hyder Awarded 2021 Grampaw Pettibone Individual Award · Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), August 15, 2022
10. 10Grampaw Pettibone · Naval Aviation News
11. 11DoD Instruction 6055.07, Mishap Notification, Investigation, Reporting, and Record Keeping (June 6, 2011, Change 2, June 11, 2019) · Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
12. 12Statement for the Record, House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces (June 13, 2018) · U.S. Navy, via U.S. House of Representatives Document Repository
13. 13Mishap Reporting Guidelines · Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
14. 14United States Marine Corps Aviation Safety Awareness Program (MARADMIN) · Headquarters Marine Corps
15. 15CNAF M-3710.7, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual (February 7, 2025) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, hosted by Navy Medicine (Naval Aerospace Medical Institute)

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