Is Air Travel Still Safe?

It's understandable to be concerned about flying after seeing so many crashes in the news lately. When one first sees the news, they may think that Boeing’s quality has dropped: After all, Boeing’s aircraft have been involved in many crashes. Beyond Boeing, many other large manufacturers, such as Bombardier, and multiple airlines have seen accidents. However, despite these incidents, flying remains statistically one of the safest forms of transportation. 

It is true that there have been many recent frightening incidents. One of the most well-known crashes was Jeju Air Flight 2216, on December 29, 2024. The crash is speculated to have been caused by a bird flying into the engine. Of the 181 occupants, 179 were killed, including all passengers; the two survivors were crew members sitting in the rear of the aircraft. Three days earlier, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashed after likely being damaged by a Russian missile. In another incident, a seaplane crashed into the water, and half of the occupants, including the pilot, were killed. Later, an Air Busan flight caught fire, but luckily, all passengers survived and evacuated, with only six being injured. On January 29, 2025, a day after that crash, a Bombardier CRJ700 collided with a Sikorsky helicopter over the Potomac River, killing all occupants on both aircraft. Following this crash, a medical plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31st. 

Focusing on the crash over the Potomac River, the Secretary of Transportation has said that the accident was completely preventable. The investigations for these crashes are still ongoing. It is crucial to let investigators do their job and discover what happened and what can be improved for the future. The accident led to an examination of the air traffic control centers, which were reportedly understaffed at the time as well. 

Understaffed air traffic control centers are a massive problem. Out of the 313 centers, 285 are understaffed. This is usually linked to how long it takes to train an air traffic controller. Controllers have to retire upon their 57th birthday, but their position isn’t open until they have left it. Making the problem worse, many controllers are about the same age, which means that the system has to fill a lot of vacancies at the same time. (Staffing issues did not seem to play a role in the crash in Philadelphia.) 

However, we can’t conclude that flying is a high-risk activity. At Reagan National Airport (near where the crash over the Potomac River occurred), the ATC (Air Traffic Control) tower was massively understaffed. One controller was doing the work of two. There are many understaffed ATC towers all over the country, including our very own Seattle-Tacoma Airport, which is only about 76 percent fully staffed; one of the most understaffed airports in the country. “We have been short-staffed for too many years and it’s creating so many unsafe situations,” one controller in Southern California wrote last year, recounting how a small aircraft requiring assistance could not be helped due to workload issues. “The FAA has created an unsafe environment to work and for the flying public. The controllers’ mental health is deteriorating.” “We are already on forced 6-day work weeks working overtime every week,” another controller in Northern California wrote. “This leads to Controller fatigue very quickly. We need more staffing.”

Overall, officials have stated that flying is still safe, as the flights are operated by highly trained professionals. For example, pilots must have 1,500 hours of flight time and 2.5 years of training. They have also said that if flying were truly unsafe, they would cancel most flights altogether. The short timespan of these crashes has brought more public attention to the issue, even though they do not add up to a less safe flying environment, according to Margaret Wallace, professor of aviation management at Florida Institute of Technology. Wallace told Fortune magazine, “These have really been in the limelight, so I know it brings people certain anxiety. But it’s safety first. We’re not going to put people out there and say ‘whatever happens, happens.’” She also said that it may even be safer now to fly, as more attention will mean more scrutiny.

Now that we know the experts’ stances, do we still think that flying is unsafe? After all, billions of people fly on planes each year, and these accidents are rare cases. In 2023, there were an estimated 4.4 billion individual passengers who flew on a plane. Transportation accidents killed 44,546 people in 2022, and all but 2,032 were car crashes. Airplanes are much safer than driving, so why be scared? The Bureau of Transportation’s 2024 Transportation Statistics Report lists air travel as the safest form of transportation. The aviation industry is always learning from its past mistakes, and that’s what makes it so safe. While the recent crashes and understaffing issues are concerning, they do not change the fundamental safety of air travel.