Plane crashes and hijackings: Are aerial incidents rising in Canada? Experts weigh in

CTV News

6 days ago

A seaplane crash at an Ontario lake and a plane hijacking at a B.C. airport have prompted questions about aircraft safety and airport security — but data shows airplane accidents are declining on average, and experts say there may be too many challenges to get security at small- to medium-sized airports up to the level they need to be.
Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) data from the last five years show there have been fewer than 200 'plane accidents' each year — with 193 in 2024, 181 in 2023, 167 in 2022, 192 in 2021 and 171 in 2020. That averages roughly 181 plane crashes per year over that span.
But the previous decade — from 2010 to 2019 — saw an average of 251 plane accidents per year, significantly higher than Canada has seen more recently.
'We have an increase in the quality of pilots, pilots are much more rigorously trained and inspected, and that's done by Transport Canada and by instructors,' said John Gradek, from McGill University's aviation management school. 'More airplanes are flying, but a reduction in incidents, which is good news.'
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of a seaplane crash this week, when a 16-year-old died at Lake Scugog, Ont., after a small plane collided with the dock he was standing on. The teen died at the scene, while the pilot was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
TSB investigators have not yet confirmed what contributed to the crash but said alcohol was not a factor.
TSB told CTV News in an email that investigators were back on scene Sunday and that the aircraft had been examined.
'The aircraft will be transported to a secure location in case they need to look at it again. Interviews with witnesses have been carried out,' said TSB spokesperson Nic Defalco.
Gradek said the TSB's role in providing recommendations to Transport Canada after crash investigations has played a major role in improving pilot training and safety measures, helping reduce crashes overall.
'What Transport Canada has done in the last few years is really take note of TSB recommendations on small airplanes and really instructed their inspectors to be more vigilant — in terms of the aspects the TSB might have reported on, things like training, like the number of hours. Particularly, floatplanes are very fickle in how you fly them,' he added.
Hijacking at B.C. airport sparks security debate
A plane hijacking from the Victoria Flying Club in B.C. has also raised questions about increasing security at smaller airports across Canada — which experts say is ideal in theory, but nearly impossible in practice.
'You certainly want to increase security reasonably where you can, but I think you would be hard-pressed to impose a uniform level of security in the general aviation world because there are so many airports. A lot of them are out in the middle of nowhere, some of them have very little activity — it would be really, really challenging to come up with security that we think of in the commercial world as consistent,' said Steven Green, a retired Boeing 737 captain and accident investigator, in a Zoom interview with CTV News Sunday.
CTV News reached out to more than a dozen small- to medium-sized airports across the country from Thursday to Sunday. While some did not respond to the request, others said they have no plans to change security measures following the hijacking incident in B.C.
'Following any incident, we conduct an internal review to assess our response and identify areas for improvement,' said Linsday Gaunt, Vice President of Revenue Strategy and Business Development at Victoria Airport, in an email to CTV News. 'Should Transport Canada make any recommendations as a result of this investigation, we will work with them to support implementation as appropriate.'