Is There Pause for Concern in Aviation?

 According to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, the number of incidents has dropped considerably over the past 50 years. In the last 20 years, accident rates have continued to decline despite the heavy increase in air traffic.

2023 was the best year with only 104 crashes. 2024 wasn’t far off with 117 crashes. However, casualty statistics increased from 237 in 2023 to 621 in 2024. Remember, though, this is all North American and military operations across the globe, not just in the United States. As of today, 2025, there have been 129 casualties.

When it comes to US Operators, the primary carrier results (and their regional subsidiaries) are as follows when it comes to casualties since the year 2002:

1) American Airlines – 2 incidents with 329 casualties

2) Alaska Airlines – 1 incident resulting in 1 casualty

3) United Airlines – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

4) Delta Airlines – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

5) Southwest Airlines – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

6) Frontier Airlines – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

7) Spirit Airlines – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

8) JetBlue – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

9) SkyWest – 0 incidents resulting in casualties

As one can see, the safety of our US operators appears to be well in hand.

The number one reason for any incident is still human error in the Flight Deck. We will likely find that the most recent incident of Delta Connection flight DL4819 on February 17, 2025, is likely the same, due to a hard landing disrupting the normal landing procedure. Notably, it is the first CRJ-900 to be destroyed in an accident.

So, given the current light of news reported incidents, is there pause for concern? In my opinion, not really. When taking everything into account, the news tends to be the worst when sensationalizing anything that negatively occurs. Are incidents up? Yes. However, this is a wake up call for more and continued improvements in safety as the skies become more crowded with drones, EvTol, and other aircraft that fly the friendly skies. We must also consider the age of each aircraft that need to be placed into retirement, especially with backlogs of orders forcing the extended lives of the aircraft currently operating.

What’s your opinion or feedback? Let’s hear from the pilots! 👇

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