Airline Safety: A 2025 Gut Check

Skift

17 hours ago

Flying is still safe, but high-profile incidents and more frequent close calls are leading to more anxiety from travelers.
Air India Liveblog Ongoing coverage of the crash of Air India flight 171 from Skift's editorial team in India, Europe, and the United States.
Ongoing coverage of the crash of Air India flight 171 from Skift's editorial team in India, Europe, and the United States.
Get the Latest Updates
Skift's coverage of the Air India crash is offered free to all readers.
A series of aviation incidents this year — including Thursday's Air India plane crash — has created anxiety about flying.
In the first six months of 2025 alone, there have already been three high-profile commercial plane crashes, and two of them were fatal. Along with the Air India crash that killed 241 passengers on Thursday, an American Airlines regional jet collided with a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington, D.C. in January.
A Delta Air Lines flight landing in Toronto crashed upon landing in February. All passengers survived, but 21 sustained injuries.
A Skift research survey conducted after the Air India crash found that 51% of Indian travelers actively avoided certain airlines due to safety concerns. Thirty-five percent of American travelers surveyed also avoid certain airlines for the same reasons, according to the survey.
Despite the recent headlines, flying is still the safest mode of transportation, aviation safety experts stress. Fatal crashes are rare.
Here's what to know:
Why Are We Seeing More Incidents?
While there hasn't been a significant uptick in the number of safety-related aviation incidents, they have become more widely reported in the media.
'Without minimizing the tragic events, I do think it's important for people to have some kind of perspective on the safety of air travel still despite these very noticeable and horrible events,' Kiernan said. 'Because it's so shocking, and truthfully also because it's so rare, it kind of dominates how people think.'
And even though the cause of the Air India crash is unknown, preliminary findings show that the causes of the American and Delta crashes were different.
The NTSB said in preliminary findings that helicopter traffic around Reagan National was a factor in the American crash. Canada's Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report that found that the Delta plane that crash landed in Toronto was descending too fast, according to NPR.
Is It Safe to Fly?
Yes. Just last year, out of the 40.6 million flights flown, there were only seven fatal accidents on commercial aircraft, according to the International Air Transport Association. The overall rate of accidents for flights was 1.13 per 1 million.
Dr. Kristy Kiernan, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said the airline industry puts a 'phenomenal amount of effort' to understand potential risks and hazards to avoid future accidents.
'The idea is that we don't just look at the disastrous events, but we look at all operations to see and identify hazards and proactively mitigate that risk,' she said.
Are Boeing Planes Safe?
Yes. While Boeing has received a lot of scrutiny for its safety and quality control practices, the company's planes are safe to fly.
'I can tell you that I would get on any airplane right now,' Kiernan said. 'I would put my kids on any airplane right now.'
The aircraft involved in the Air India crash was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which has one of the strongest safety records in the industry. Before Thursday's crash, there were no reported fatalities on the 787 since it entered service in 2011.
The cause of the Air India crash is still unclear. Experts expect that a potential cause of the crash will be revealed relatively soon since the black box was recovered.
Last year, a door plug suddenly fell off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max, which also revived scrutiny of the plane maker's manufacturing practices.
Boeing's 737 Max aircraft was involved in two fatal plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. The crashes were linked to poorly designed cockpit software, and most aviation regulators had grounded the 737 Max at the time.
The Justice Department also opened an investigation into Boeing over concealing certain information about the 737 Max to regulators. Boeing recently reached a $1.1 billion with the DOJ to avoid criminal charges.
Boeing fixed the software issues and the 737 Max has been deemed by every major aviation regulator as safe to fly.
'That was successfully resolved to the satisfaction of every global regulator,' Kiernan said.
Kelly Ortberg, Boeing's CEO has vowed to fix the company's culture and restore its reputation. He has previously told staff that Boeing can't afford to make another mistake.
'Clearly, we are at a crossroads: The trust in our company has eroded,' Ortberg said during an earnings call in October 2024. 'We're saddled with too much debt. We've had serious lapses in our performance across the company which have disappointed many of our customers.'
What About Close Calls?
In the U.S., there have also been numerous reports about so-called close calls at airports across the country since 2023.
While the number of close calls has declined over the past decade, concerns about crowded airspace grew after the crash near Reagan National Airport this year. The NTSB asked the FAA to permanently restrict helicopter traffic around Reagan National in March.
Kiernan said there are several reasons why close calls have become more frequent such as capacity constraints at airports and layout issues with an airport's runway that may make aircraft more susceptible to close calls.
'Travel really bounced back after Covid, and then we're looking at more and more airplanes in the same amount of sky, but the same amount of pavement and that there is a limit to that,' she said.
What Is Being Done to Improve Air Travel?
The U.S. has also experienced issues with an acute air traffic controller shortage, which most recently led to thousands of flight disruptions out of Newark Liberty International Airport.
President Donald Trump has called for an air traffic control overhaul. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has also pushed Congress to authorize billions in funding to fix air traffic control. His plan, which includes replacing dated air traffic control towers, telecommunications equipment, and radars. The plan also includes installing anti-collision technology at 200 runways.
Duffy's proposal is expected to cost at least $30 billion and he believes the fixes could be done within three to four years if Congress provides the funding. So far, the House approved a version of the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' that earmarks $12.5 billion in initial funding for air traffic control reform.