Is air travel safe? Deadly Air India plane crash renews concerns after a string of other crashes
One passenger survived the crash but everyone else aboard the Boeing 787 was killed. More people died on the ground after the plane crashed and generated a large fireball. Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed and burst into flames near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat.
All the aircraft crashes and near misses have fueled many worries about flying.
The Indian crash was far worse than the midair collision that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C., in January in the first major fatal crash on U.S. soil since 2009. Other recent incidents include an airliner clipping another in February while taxiing at the Seattle airport. In March, an American Airlines plane caught fire after landing in Denver, sending 12 people to the hospital. A sightseeing helicopter broke apart and crashed into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey in April, killing six people.
Federal officials have tried to reassure travelers that flying is the safest mode of transportation, and statistics support that. But the cascade of headlines about all the things that have gone wrong is drawing increasing attention.
Here is a look at some of the recent tragedies and mishaps:
Recent fatal crashes
— Two different small planes crashed near San Diego over the past month. Six people died when a private jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood in the midst of heavy fog. The runway lights weren't working at that airport. Six more people died earlier this week when a small plane crashed into the ocean shortly after taking off in San Diego.
— The New York helicopter that crashed on April 10 departed a downtown heliport. The flight lasted less than 18 minutes. Radar data shows the helicopter flew north along the Manhattan skyline, then south toward the Statue of Liberty. The victims in this crash included a family from Spain who was celebrating the ninth birthday of one of their children.
— Three people were killed and one was injured when a small plane crashed April 11 in Boca Raton, Florida, near a major interstate highway and pushed a car onto railroad tracks.
— Two small planes collided midair near an Arizona airport in February, killing two people who were on one of the aircraft. Following the collision, one plane landed uneventfully, but the other hit the ground near a runway and caught fire. The crash happened at Marana Regional Airport near Tucson.
— A small commuter plane crashed in Alaska in early February, killing all 10 people on board. The crash was one of the deadliest in the state in 25 years. Radar data indicated that the plane rapidly lost elevation and speed. The U.S. Coast Guard was unaware of any distress signals from the aircraft.
— A medical transport plane that had just taken off plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in late January, killing all six people on board and two people on the ground. About two dozen people were also hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board said its cockpit voice recorder likely hadn't been functioning for years. The crew made no distress calls to air traffic control.
— The collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter above the nation's capital killed everyone aboard both aircraft in late January. It was the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.
— A jetliner operated by Jeju Air skidded off a runway, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames in late December in South Korea after its landing gear apparently failed to deploy. All but two of the 181 people aboard were killed in one of that country's worst aviation disasters.
Incidents with injuries
— The American Airlines plane that caught fire at Denver International Airport in March had been diverted there because the crew reported engine vibrations after taking off in Colorado Springs. While taxiing to the gate, an engine caught fire, prompting slides to be deployed so passengers could evacuate quickly. The people taken to hospitals had minor injuries. The NTSB found a fuel leak and several improperly installed parts in the engine.
— A single-engine plane carrying five people crashed and burst into flames that same month in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Everyone on board survived. Three people were taken to an area burn center.
— A Delta Air Lines jet flipped over while landing at Toronto's Pearson Airport in February. All 80 people on board survived, but some people received minor injuries. Witnesses and video from the scene showed the plane landing so hard that its right wing was sheared off. Investigators said when trying to determine the cause, they would consider the weather conditions and the possibility of human error.
Close calls
— Last month, two commercial planes had to abort their landings at Reagan National Airport near Washington because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter flying near the Pentagon. The Army suspended all its helicopter flights in the area after this incident. It was a Black Hawk priority air transport from the same unit known as the PAT25 that collided with the passenger jet in midair in January.
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— In April, on the same day as the fatal New York helicopter crash, a wing tip of an American Airlines plane struck another plane from the same airline on a taxiway of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. There were no reported injuries. Multiple members of Congress were aboard one of the flights.
— A FedEx cargo plane made an emergency landing at a busy New Jersey airport in March after a bird strike caused an engine fire that could be seen in the morning sky. The plane landed at Newark Liberty International Airport. There were no reported injuries.
— Pilots on a Southwest Airlines flight about to land at Chicago's Midway Airport were forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway in late February. Video showed the plane approaching the runway before it abruptly pulled up as a business jet taxied onto the runway without authorization, federal officials said.
— In early February, a Japan Airlines plane was taxiing on the tarmac of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when it apparently clipped the tail of a parked Delta plane. There were no injuries reported.
— In early January, passengers panicked when a man aboard a JetBlue plane taxiing for takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport opened an exit door over a wing, triggering an emergency slide to inflate. Other passengers quickly restrained the man and the plane didn't take off.
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Shortly before the collision, a controller got an alert saying the plane and Black Hawk were converging and asked the helicopter if it had the jet in sight. The military pilot said yes and asked for 'visual separation' with the jet for a second time, allowing it to fly closer than if the pilots couldn't see the plane. Controllers approved the request roughly 20 seconds before the collision. The NTSB has said there were 85 dangerous close calls between planes and helicopters near Reagan National in the three years before the crash, and collision alarms had been ordering pilots to take evasive action at least once a month since 2011. The investigation NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters in February that the Black Hawk's cockpit recorder suggested an incomplete radio transmission may have left the crew unable to hear air traffic control tell them, just before the crash, to move behind the jet. 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Ryan Austin O'Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland. O'Hara was the crew chief, and Eaves and Lobach were pilots. Among the jet's passengers were several members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a development camp for elite junior skaters that followed the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. A figure skating tribute event in Washington raised $1.2 million for the crash victims' families. Others included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip in Kansas; four members of a steamfitters' union in suburban Maryland; nine students and parents from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia; and two Chinese nationals. What about other crashes this year? Besides the midair collision above Washington, a string of other recent crashes have brought attention to air travel, which remains overwhelmingly safe. The crashes include: On Jan. 31 a medical transport jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven. On Feb. 6 a small commuter aircraft went down off western Alaska, killing 10. On Feb. 17, a Delta plane crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto but everyone survived. Two small planes collided in midair in Arizona on Feb. 19, killing two people. On April 10, a New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists. On April 11, three people were killed and one was injured when a small plane crashed in Boca Raton, Florida. The crash of the Air India passenger plane in June occurred in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, killing more than 240 people bound for London and others on the ground, officials said. A single passenger survived. The same month, a small plane crashed off the San Diego coast shortly after takeoff, killing all six people on board. 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