Commercial airlines are facing criticism now that multiple plane crashes and other incidents have occurred in just the first two months of 2025. An American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter collided in the air near Washington D.C., then a Delta Air Lines flight crash landed in Toronto just weeks later. Naturally, frequent travelers are wondering if it’s even safe to fly anymore, not to mention asking why it seems that so many plane crashes keep happening.
Below, find out how many commercial plane crashes have happened so far in 2025.
How Many Commercial Plane Crashes Happened in 2025?
There have been at least four major aviation crashes and/or collisions so far in 2025. Among the first commercial plane crashes of the year was when an American Airlines jet collided with an army helicopter near Washington D.C., which killed all 67 people involved in the collision. Most of the flight passengers were youth figure skaters and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
How Many Plane Crashes in Total in 2025?
So far, there have been at least 70 aviation accidents so far in 2025, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
How Many Plane Crashes Happened in 2024?
There were at least 30 aircraft incidents that took place in 2024, according to Forbes, which described that year as the deadliest one in aviation since 2018.
How Many Commercial Plane Crashes Are There per Year?
Every year, there is a different amount of plane crashes and other aviation incidents. Multiple outlets estimated that there have been less than 50 crashes per year. Data proves that aviation accidents and the number of fatalities from them have decreased since the 1970s.
Why Are Planes Crashing Lately?
It may seem that more planes than ever are crashing in 2025, but that’s not true; data proves that 2024 had more aviation accidents. In January 2025, aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told CNN that flyers are still “safer in your flight than you were driving in your car to the airport … statically speaking. Air travel remains the safest mode of transportation. And in safety, we identify trends … something that happens over and over again. And in the safety world, if you keep having near-misses, eventually you’re going to have a midair (collision).”
Brickhouse also pointed out that “it’s important for the flying public to be vocal and demand that the government and the different entities do everything possible to make air travel as safe as possible.”
Due to the string of aviation crashes, Americans are wondering if it’s even safe to fly anymore. According to a 2024 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a person’s chance of dying in a plane incident is 1 in 13.7 million, per TIME.
