Why does it seem like plane crashes are happening more frequently?
Is flying still the safest form of travel?
On Monday, a Delta Air Lines jet from Minneapolis crashed and overturned while landing at Toronto Pearson Airport in what was the latest in a string of aviation accidents that have rocked the world in 2025.
Luckily all 80 passengers and crew members on board the plane survived, with 18 reporting relatively minor injuries considering what happened and three said to be critical by emergency services.
Footage of the incident, which circulated online, shows just how miraculous it was that no one was killed as the plane slides on its side down the runway with smoke and flames trailing from it before coming to rest upside down.
The incident gained widespread media attention not least because it is the fourth major plane crash this year in the continent of North America.
Tragically, the other three incidents resulted in fatalities.
How many plane crashes have there been in 2025?
Last month on January 29, a collision between an American Airlines plane and a US Army helicopter left 67 people dead in Washington DC.
It was the deadliest plane crash in the US since November 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens, New York, shortly after take-off from John F Kennedy International Airport. The accident killed 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
Just two days after the Washington crash, a medical transport plane crashed into houses and cars in Philadelphia on January 31, killing six people on board and another person on the ground.
Then, earlier this month, 10 people were killed — all the people on the flight — when a small commuter jet crashed on sea ice in Alaska.
Not to mention the crash that happened on the ground in Arizona when Motley Crue frontman, Vince Neil’s private jet collided with another plane, killing the pilot.
However, figures released by the National Transportation Safety Board actually show that in January 2025 there was a record low number of airplane accidents Stateside, when combining private and commercial airline flights.
There were 62 aviation accidents recorded in America in January this year, and that total number was 18 less than the 80 recorded in January 2024.
So far in February there has been 26 accidents recorded compared to the 93 of last year.
Heightened media attention
As 2024 drew to a close there were a series of aviation tragedies that overshadowed the festivities.
On Christmas Day it was confirmed that 38 people had been killed and 29 more injured in a commercial airline crash in Kazakhstan.
The plane is thought to have come under fire from Russian air defence systems as it tried to land in Chechnya before being diverted to Kazakhstan, where it crashed.
The tragic timing of this incident drew widespread media attention and as the world still reeled from this incident, just five days later 179 people were killed when a Jeju Air plane crashed in South Korea.
Early indications suggest that a bird strike was to blame for this deadly incident.
The two incidents occurring just days apart meant all eyes were on the skies as investigations continued.
Is it still safe to fly?
While the recent run of incidents will be worrying for many, there is nothing to suggest that accidents are increasing and in fact the number of fatalities year-on-year is decreasing.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News in February that air travel is “way safer than travelling in a car and train. This is the safest mode of transportation”.
Though it is an age-old saying that you are more likely to die on your way to the airport than in a plane crash, that fact still rings true and there is data to back that up.
According to a report published by the International Civil Aviation Organization last year, your odds of dying in a plane crash are one in 11 million. Compare that to the odds of being in a car crash, which averages around one in 5,000.
