AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) - According to the National Transportation Safety Board, in 2025 alone, the United States has experienced 87 aviation incidents, 13 being fatal, resulting in a total of 85 confirmed deaths.
On Monday, yet another aviation incident occurred when a Delta Air Lines jet flying from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Toronto, Canada crashed in a failed landing.
The jet, carrying 76 passengers, flipped upside down on a runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The crash resulted in 18 injuries, and no casualties.
"Our most pressing priority remains taking care of all customers and Endeavor crew members who were involved," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said. "We'll do everything we can to support them and their families in the days ahead, and I know the hearts, thoughts and prayers of the entire Delta community are with them. We are grateful for all the first responders and medical teams who have been caring for them." (ABC News)
There have been four major U.S. aviation disasters this year, all of which occurred within a two week span.
On Jan. 29, a plane-helicopter collision in Washington D.C. claimed the lives of 67. Seven people were killed on Jan. 31 as a medical jet crashed into a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania neighborhood. On Feb. 6, a small plane disappeared from the radar in Alaska and crashed, killing all 10 onboard. Shortly following these three disasters, on Feb. 10, two private jets collided at an airport in Scottsdale, Arizona killing one and injuring four.
Image of one damaged plane involved in Scottsdale disaster. Courtesy of Reuters.
An AP-NORC poll conducted between Feb. 6 and 10 discovered that out of 1,112 American adults, confidence in air travel safety has declined, with 64% of U.S. adults believing plane travel to be "very safe" or "somewhat safe," down from 71% last year. Additionally, around 20% of participants believe flying is very or somewhat unsafe, compared to 12% in 2024.
So how safe is air travel?
According to a 2024 Transportation Statistics Report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, air travel is the absolute safest form of transportation. (USA Today)
During a Feb. 3 interview on Fox News, United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy stated, "Air travel is the safest form of travel in the country. So you can travel and feel good about it on American airplanes,"
With that statement comes facts, as according to the FAA, an average of 45,000 commercial and private flights take off each day in the U.S., carrying 2.9 million passengers across 29 million square miles of airspace. For all that, any one person’s odds of dying in an air disaster are vanishingly small—about one-in 13.7 million according to a 2024 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In comparison, the odds of dying in a car accident are one in 95. (NBC News)
It is the citizens decision to decide for themselves if they fly, or not, however, the statistics ultimately favor air travel.
