Washington ? The military is confronting a series of exasperating crashes blamed on pilot recklessness, including the fatal accident in which a seasoned Army pilot confessed last week that he was trying to show off performing a dangerous maneuver at low altitude.

In a second case, Air Force investigators concluded two instructor pilots were likely hung over from a night of heavy drinking with friends when their trainer jet crashed after takeoff one morning last year in Savannah, Ga. Both men died.

An Air Force report said the plane climbed steeply after takeoff, then rolled nearly upside down as it stalled. Investigators said one pilot, Capt. Judson Brinson, violated rules by consuming as many as nine drinks the night before; the other pilot, Capt. Thomas Lee Moore, consumed as many as 10 drinks that night. Toxicology tests showed neither pilot was legally drunk at the time of the crash.

Investigators said a Marine Reserve squadron commander in a Hornet fighter jet at Quantico, Va., flew a low-altitude air show for family and spectators before his brakes failed performing touch-and-go landings on a short runway.

The pilot, Lt. Col. William D. Reavis, ejected and was seriously injured. The plane had more than $1 million in damage as it rolled through a small fence and into a marsh.

That crash came months after a Naval Reserve pilot, Cmdr. Kevin Thomas Hagenstad of Marietta, Ga., survived a crash in a rural Tennessee farm field last year. Investigators said Hagenstad was flying so low his $40 million fighter jet struck power lines.

Hagenstad, who broke his ankle, said he was “not at liberty to discuss this.”

The Navy’s top safety commander, Rear Admiral Dick Brooks, described behavior by both Hagenstad and Reavis as “clearly unacceptable.” Brooks also cited “blatant” rules violations by Hagenstad.

For training purposes, the Army uses a dramatic cockpit video from the crash of an Apache attack helicopter at Fort Campbell, Ky. It shows the co-pilot yelling, “Yeehaw!” during one maneuver banned as unsafe by the Army.

The tape also shows the pilot and co-pilot debating whether they can fly safely between tall trees while traveling nearly 90 miles per hour at 16 feet above ground.

“Think I can make it in between there?” the pilot asks.

“Nope,” the co-pilot answers.

“Oh, ye of little faith. Look how big that is,” the pilot says.

Seconds later, the Apache’s rotors struck a huge limb, shattering one blade as the pilot struggled to land safely. “C’mon, get it under control, Mark!” the co-pilot shouts. Both crew survived. The 1997 accident caused $1 million in damage.

In another case, the Army convicted two Black Hawk pilots accused of taking their wives on an unauthorized flight in the Bahamas in 1998 that ended tragically. Both wives died in a crash when the pilots turned too sharply while flying low.

The Army’s report said one pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Riddell, was known informally among soldiers as “Air Show Dan” with a reputation for “yanks and banks.” It also said Riddell had been admonished for unsafe flying immediately before the crash, and said he called one Bahamian official “a sissy” after complaints about his flying style.