Experts say the heightened media attention on aviation incidents doesn’t reflect broader safety trends.
U.S. travelers are on edge after a spate of recent airline incidents, including one deadly midair collision that killed 67 people and another in which a commercial jet flipped upside down after landing.
Since the start of the year, multiple aviation accidents have occurred, seemingly back-to-back, with many wondering whether they are signs of a broader trend for aviation safety or the result of increased focus on air travel following the catastrophic midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 29.
Just two days later, a medical transport jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven people and leaving more than a dozen injured. Then a small Cessna plane en route to Nome, Alaska, slammed into the ice on the Bering Sea, killing all 10 on board.
On Feb. 17, a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis crash-landed into a runway in Toronto before catching fire, skidding across the tarmac, and flipping over. Miraculously, all 80 on board survived, with 21 sent to hospitals with injuries.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the two people who died after a Cessna 172S collided with a Lancair 360 MK II near the Marana Regional Airport in Marana, Arizona, on Feb. 19.
There have also been a host of more minor aviation incidents in the past two months, including when a Japan Airlines plane clipped the tail of a Delta Air Lines jet in Seattle while taxiing; a United Airlines flight that had to abort its takeoff in Houston after catching fire; a different United Airlines flight that was evacuated after experiencing an engine problem; and another incident in which a passenger opened an exit door on a JetBlue flight before takeoff.
Even with these events, the number of aviation accidents every year has remained steady over the past decade, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with the past two months seeing fewer fatal and non-fatal incidents than the same time frame in both 2023 and 2024.
Aviation experts told The Epoch Times that commercial aviation remains the safest form of transportation, and the deadliest plane crash in more than 20 years drew extra media attention.
Accident rates in both commercial aviation and Part 135—which includes private charters and air taxi flights—continue to decline, Juan Browne, a pilot for one of the major U.S. commercial airlines, told The Epoch Times.
“Every time something happens, it’s highlighted in the media, and oftentimes these other incidents, they’re fairly regular occurrence, but these errors are usually trapped and a larger accident is prevented,” he said.
Here’s what the numbers indicate regarding U.S. aviation safety trends for the past 10 years.
Aviation Accidents 2014-2025
By Jacob Burg
