U.S. Air Crashes Are Down In 2025 But Fatalities Are Way Up
Air travelers in the United States faced a scary start to 2025 after a series of deadly crashes. Incidents in Pennsylvania and Washington DC claimed the lives of more than 70 people, but the number of crashes occurring in the U.S. is actually down this year. The bad news, however, is that fatalities have risen to alarming levels as a result of plane crashes.
After deadly crashes rocked the country and a disaster in Canada saw an American jet roll when landing, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the U.S. was in the midst of a spike in plane crashes. That's not the case, though, and the 87 aviation incidents that have happened so far this year mark a 30 percent reduction in crashes compared with 2024, reports Newsweek.
Between January 1 and February 19 2024, Newsweek reports that there were 123 aviation incidents "of various severity." Of the crashes recorded, 18 were fatal and resulted in the deaths of 42 people, as the side reports:
None of the incidents between January 1, 2024, and February 19, 2024, involved planes with more than six people onboard. The most significant incident occurred on an Airbus helicopter on February 9, 2024, with all six people onboard reported dead.
Throughout the year, 1,415 aviation accidents were reported, including 257 fatal incidents. Of the 179 fatal incidents that Newsweek obtained records of, there were 306 reported deaths. The deadliest incident was a Pilatus aircraft crash in Recluse, Wyoming, which killed six of the seven people on board, including the pilot.
While the number of crashes is down compared with 2024, the amount of fatalities as a result of air crashes in America is much higher so far this year.
Read more: Lawmaker Asks Delta Pilot About Being A 'Stewardess' Immediately After Being Told She's A Pilot
There were 62 air crashes in January and a further 25 incidents have occurred so far in February. Of the 87 crashes, 13 of them were fatal and led to the deaths of 85 people across the U.S.
The death toll from those fatal crashes means that the number of people killed in air travel doubled compared with 2024. The rise was attributed to crashes in Washington and Alaska, as Newsweek adds:
Of the fatal crashes, most planes had a few people on board, with the largest flight being the American Airlines regional jet that collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. in late January. The collision killed all 67 people onboard.
The second largest was the single-engine Cessna Caravan aircraft operated by Bering Air in Nome, Alaska. All 10 people onboard the flight were killed and have since been identified.
In contrast, the fatal crashes in early 2024 were much smaller aircraft that resulted in a much smaller loss of life.
The shocking number of deaths in American airspace sparked a strong response from the government. Sadly, the response it's sparked saw president Donald Trump blame the crashes on diversity schemes in the Federal Aviation Administration.
Trump also sent his pet billionaire Elon Musk to the FAA in an attempt to tighten things up at the agency responsible for air safety. Musk gutted the agency and fired hundreds of workers, before he sent in his own team of engineers into the FAA's secure facilities.
The new administration also attempted to push the blame for the increased deaths onto Joe Biden's government, which left office just days before the Washington D.C. crash. That didn't really worked, though, and former transport boss Pete Buttigieg took to Twitter X to defend his administration's record on safety.
Read the original article on Jalopnik.
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