Plane crashes in Russia, India, US: 2025 deadliest in years in aviation safety

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

The plane crash in Russia that is feared to have claimed 49 lives on Thursday comes barely a month-and-a-half after the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. Even before the July 24 crash in Russia's eastern Amur region, the year 2025 was already way above the past decade's average of deaths in air crashes per year. A large portion of the damaged plane fuselage is lifted from the Potomac river during recovery efforts after the American Airlines crash. (Getty Images/AFP)
The number of civil aviation fatalities in 2025 had crossed 460 after the Ahmedabad crash claimed 260 lives. The average over the past decade is 284, as per Jan-Arwed Richter, founder of Jacdec, a German consulting firm that tracks aviation safety.
Now, if the Russia crash indeed causes the number of deaths feared — all 49 onboard — the total for 2025 will cross 500, which will be almost double the average.
In between, an air force jet crash in Bangladesh caused 29 deaths, most of them civilians on the ground.
Year began with American Airlines collision
In January, American Airlines Group Flight 5342 collided with a US Army helicopter near Washington. It killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft — 64 passengers and crew on the airliner and three crew on the helicopter.
A day after that crash, on January 29, the African nation of South Sudan saw a smaller plane, a Beechcraft 1900D, on a charter transporting oil workers crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 20 out of 21 on board.
January ended with another crash in the US, this one of an air ambulance in Philadelphia that killed eight people.
The Bering Air Flight 445 in Alaska first went missing and then its wrckage was found a day later, on February 7. All 10 onboard were dead.
Those onboard the Delta Connection Flight 4819 from Minneapolis-Saint Paul in the US to Toronto, Canada, were lucky as no one was killed even as the plane crashed upon landing on February 17.
In Honduras, a charter, a plane crashed into the sea, which killed 13 of the 18 passengers and crew. Singer-politician Aurelio Martinez was among the victims.
April saw a crash in the US again, when a helicopter on a sightseeing tour in New Jersey crashed into the Hudson river, killing all five passengers and the pilot.
Boeing 737 shot down amid civil war
A strange but deadly crash took place on May 3, when a cargo Boeing 737-290C Advanced was shot down in the city of Nyala by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), owing to suspicion that it was carrying weapons for the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) engaged in a civil war. Twenty people died.
The US saw a crash in May too. On May 22, a Cessna plane crashed in San Diego, killing six people onboard.
Ahmedabad tragedy
On June 12, India saw the biggest air disaster in its history when Air India Flight 171 from Ahmedabad to London crashed soon after takeoff.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was carrying 242 passengers and crew, all of whom, except one passenger, died. Another 19 people were killed on the ground as it crashed second after takeoff onto a nearby medical college and hostel.
A month later, on July 13, a smaller plane crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport in Essex, UK. Four occupants died.
Then came the Bangladesh disaster when the air force plane crashed on a school building.
On July 24, Thursday, a Russian passenger plane carrying 49 people, including six crew members, crashed in the eastern Amur region.