The Plane Crash Increase is Not as Scary as it Seems
“Buzz,” your phone vibrates. You check it to see another article about a deadly plane crash. A wave of déjà vu hits you, and you remember the disturbing number of plane incidents you have been reading about.
As of March 16, there have been 268 commercial and private aviation incidents in 2024 and 2025. Why have there been so many plane accidents in the past months? What has happened to the seemingly reliable industry? Let’s delve into some flight crashes and what led to their horrendous fate.
On December 29, 2024, Jeju Air Flight 2216 became one of the deadliest aviation accidents in history, killing 179 of the 181 people. The plane, scheduled to fly from Bangkok to South Korea, hit a flock of birds while attempting to land, causing both of the plane’s engines to fail and the plane to lose power. Working to assess the situation, the pilots circled the airport and attempted a belly-up landing without the wheels. They successfully landed halfway through the runway but crashed into a concrete structure. While the flight details are still under investigation, according to seasoned pilots, The Boeing 787-800 had manual landing gear release levers that could have aided the situation, but due to infrequent training, it is likely the pilots overlooked this crucial safety feature in the stressful environment. Ultimately, multiple system failures and a lapse in training during a critical part of the flight led to the plane’s horrific end.
Moreover, on January 29, 2025, American Airlines Flight 5342, with four crew members and 60 passengers, departed from Kansas for the Washington, D.C. area. On the plane’s final approach, they were told by air traffic control to change runways and to fly over the Potomac River. A Black Hawk helicopter, conducting a routine training flight with three soldiers, was asked if they had a visual on the descending Flight 5342; they responded that they did, but sadly, both vehicles collided, leading to the deaths of 67 people.
Many theories have emerged explaining this horrific crash, but the most likely comes down to human error. The Black Hawk was flying under visual flight rules, having to use observations of their surroundings without mechanical assistance to navigate safely. When the Black Hawk responded affirmatively to seeing Flight 5342, they most likely saw another plane, leading to the harrowing collision. Thus, this mid-air collision was most likely due to pilot error and lack of communication between the passenger plane and the military helicopter.
The Riverdale Review conducted a survey asking students their opinions on the current state of air travel; the majority expressed concern about the air travel industry. Sophomore Sascha Chodry claimed that he has “lost a little trust in the airline industry because of the several crashes recently in 2024 and 2025, especially that one Delta flight that [that] landed upside down.” Why does it seem like the number of plane crashes has been increasing recently?
According to US News and the Columbia Journalism Review, most major news sources are reporting more about plane crashes without proper facts and explanations behind their takeaway than in previous years. This has led people to believe that the airline industry has become more dangerous even though, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airline industry has been constantly becoming safer. Sophomore Dylan Oh feels that “the media pushes a lot [more] air accident stories now than before. And…a lot of them are… minor and not as big as the Jeju crash.”
The truth is that airline crashes have increased in recent years, but they have remained proportional to the growing industry. In 2020, due to Covid-19, the number of commercial flights hit a record-breaking low of 18.3 million. As reported by IATA, after this low in 2020, there has been a gradual increase each year in the number of flights, with 2024 becoming the first post-Covid year to surpass pre-Covid year 2019, continuing the upward trend in the airline industry. Consequently, with the increase in flights every year, there has been a proportional increase in crashes. In 2019, there were 38.9 million commercial flights, and of those flights, there were only eight fatal incidents. In 2024, there were 40.6 million commercial flights, with only seven fatal accidents. This means that while 2024 and 2025 have seen more fatal accidents compared to recent years, when viewed in a broader context, the overall number of crashes follows the pre-Covid averages. Sophomore Jonathan Milo concluded that he “still believe[s] the airline industry is safe, especially compared to cars.”
