Why Have There Been So Many Plane Incidents in 2025
Considering how many millions of people travel by commercial airliner every day without incident, crashes involving such planes are the definition of rare: Seldom occurring or uncommon.
But it only takes one for it to feel as if the sky is falling.
Because while it's generally known that, statistically speaking, flying is a safer mode of travel than driving, the thought of anything going wrong aboard a plane is exponentially scarier.
And on Jan. 29, the worst happened: American Airlines Flight 5342—carrying 60 passengers and four crew members from Wichita, Ks., to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.—was approaching the runway when it collided midair with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing everyone aboard both aircrafts.
It was the first commercial airline crash on U.S. soil since Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y., in 2009, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground.
But, long gap between crashes aside, it was hard to forget that the disaster occurred a year after a panel blew off a Boeing jet midair during an Alaska Airlines flight. Since there were no casualties, the incident became fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch ("That's why our new slogan is, 'Alaska Airlines: You didn't die and you got a cool story'"), but we tend to try to laugh at what scares the s--t out of us.
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But, long gap between crashes aside, it was hard to forget that the disaster occurred a year after a panel blew off a Boeing jet midair during an Alaska Airlines flight. Since there were no casualties, the incident became fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch ("That's why our new slogan is, 'Alaska Airlines: You didn't die and you got a cool story'"), but we tend to try to laugh at what scares the s--t out of us.
Nor were fears assuaged when a Learjet 55 air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia two days after the American Airlines tragedy, killing all six people onboard and one person on the ground. Or when a Delta jet coming from Minneapolis crash-landed and flipped over upon arrival in Toronto on Feb. 17. (All 76 passengers and four crew members survived.)
Still, U.S. government officials and aviation experts have been quick to assure the public that flying is safe, especially on commercial airlines.
"We're going to lose 44,000 people on the roads this year," aviation expert John Cox told NBC News March 1. "We will not have anywhere close to that, that will...experience a problem with an airplane. The facts are clear, the most dangerous part of any flight for a passenger is the drive to and from the airport."
And while 2025 did begin with a devastating loss of life, the average number of fatal aviation incidents that tend to occur during January and February in a given year in the U.S. were down.
According to numbers from the National Transportation Safety Board, January and February typically have about 20 fatal aviation accidents per month (that includes all types of civil—aka non-military—aircraft, including cargo planes and private jets). But there were only 10 fatal aviation accidents this past January, and in February there were six.
'Commercial aviation is a profoundly safe way to move large numbers of people," safety consultant and former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz told The Guardian March 1, "and it gets safer every year."
And tragedies tend to result in new reforms. For instance, families affected by the 2009 Buffalo crash helped secure the passage of a federal aviation safety bill that required, among other things, the creation of a pilot performance database and a requirement that pilots have 10 hours of rest before flying.
"We call each other the family we never wanted," Ron Aughtmon, who lost an uncle in the Buffalo crash, told CBS News last month of the relatives who joined forces to effect change. "Not many people know what flight 3407 is, and our job is to make sure that we keep our loved ones and the fight for airline safety at the forefront."
'One good thing that the aviation community does do is it really does learn from its past experiences and past accidents,' aviation attorney Jim Brauchle told USA Today in early February. "The [Federal Aviation Administration] has implemented or tried to implement a lot of programs where, if you report safety issues, there's no repercussions for things like that."
Moreover, he continued, "Everything is pretty highly regulated. With aircraft we have so many redundant systems. If you have a failure of something there's usually a backup. Technology today has gotten so much better."
Still, so many headlines about flying in 2025 have been of the alarming variety, so there's been a spotlight on all types of incidents. Here's a look at the year so far:
Jan. 29: American Airlines Flight 5342 Collides With Army Black Hawk HelicopterJan. 31: Medical Transport Jet Crashes in PhiladelphiaFeb. 6: Small Plane Crash in Alaska Kills 10Feb. 10: Vince Neil's Learjet Involved in Fatal CollisionFeb. 17: Delta Jet Crash Lands in Toronto and Flips OverFeb. 19: Private Planes Collide at Arizona Airport, Killing 2March 1: FedEx Plane Engine Catches Fire After Colliding With Bird
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