People across the US are worried about flight safety after several high-profile plane crashes this year, including a commercial crash in Washington DC that killed 67 people. Google searches for “is flying safe” have jumped in recent weeks. But the numbers suggest 2025 has actually been a relatively safe year to fly – at least in terms of the overall number of accidents.
January and February typically have about 20 fatal aviation accidents per month, according to numbers from the National Transportation Safety Board. By contrast, this January, there were only 10 fatal aviation accidents, and in February there were six. The data covers all US civil aviation, from large commercial planes to private jets.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, was unsurprised at the numbers. “Commercial aviation is a profoundly safe way to move large numbers of people, and it gets safer every year,” he said.
Goelz, a longtime safety consultant, explained that the inclusion of private flights dramatically shapes the NTSB numbers. Wealthy individuals get their private planes out in the summer months. These flights are significantly more dangerous, because they are often flown by pilots who don’t travel as regularly and are inexperienced when faced with surprise summer storms.
Still, it’s worth noting that the data only looks at the number of fatal accidents and not the number of deaths. Part of the reason this year’s air disasters have been so shocking is the death toll in Washington, after an American Airlines flight collided with an army Black Hawk helicopter. That crash and another on 6 February in Alaska that killed 10 people do stand out: they were among the deadliest in the US in a decade, CNN reported.
Donald Trump seized on the Washington crash as an opportunity to criticise diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. He claimed a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commitment to hiring people with disabilities was “one reason why our country was going to hell”. His administration decided earlier this month fired to fire about 400 of the FAA’s 45,000 employees, prompting concerns about aviation safety. (On Thursday, a judge temporarily halted Trump’s mass firings.)
“He looked like a fool advancing that theory within hours of the tragedy,” Goelz said of the president’s analysis. “People were treated again to his underlying cruelty.”
