The last time a major commercial airplane crashed in America was on February 12, 2009. That was close to a decade ago, and the last death on a commercial plane in America was on April 17, 2018. Both incidents happened years ago and seemed out of the blue, but they weren’t expected to happen again. So why, when we are less than two months into 2025, have there been two large and four smaller commercial crashes?
February 12, 2009, was a devastating time for the entire nation. According to Democratic and Chronicle, Continental Airlines flight 3407 crashed at 10:20 pm in Buffalo, New York. The plane crashed into houses on Long Street, nine miles away from the airport. (Frelle) The airplane was flying from Newark, NJ to Buffalo, NY. According to CBS News, the plane’s crash was caused by mistakes and fatigue of the pilots. The plane ended up stalling and nose-diving into a house on Long Street. The crash killed 50 people in total, 49 in the crew and passengers, and one person in the two-story house the plane crashed into.When they took a closer look, the pilot was very fatigued and shouldn’t have been flying. (Oliver et al.)The pilot also did not have enough training and wasn’t experienced enough to execute the flight. This tragic event brought light to the training of pilots and added many more rules to ensure the safety of both pilots and passengers. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) put in place 2 new rules where pilots have to have 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep in between flights and require new pilots to have at least 1,500 hours of flying time before they take on a commercial flight.
On April 17, 2018, another tragedy occurred. According to the New York Times, Southwest Flight 1380 experienced complications and had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia. One of the engines exploded mid-flight and created a large amount of shrapnel. A piece of shrapnel flew up from the engine and hit a window. The pressure in the cabin was immediately decompressed and the oxygen masks were released. Jenifer Rioden was the only casualty from the accident. Jenifer was partially sucked out of the plane and hit by shrapnel flying around in the air. She was pulled back in by some helpful passengers who immediately performed CPR on her. She passed away after multiple attempts to revive her. The limited oxygen and injuries from shrapnel were the main causes of her death. This incident was ruled as an accident and caused by metal fatigue. Southwest is known for multiple accounts of people finding metal fatigue in many of their planes, which has been further investigated. (Stevens)
Now in the present day, it feels like it’s dangerous to fly because of many flights crashing. Multiple crashes ranging from large, commercial flights to tiny, medical flights have increased air travel anxiety. January 29, 2025, the first crash occurred. The flight came from Wichita, KS, and was planning to land in D.C. The flight collided with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac, very close to the airport where they were on track to land. There were 64 people on the plane and 3 soldiers in the helicopter. Yet there were no survivors in the accident. The authorities have said that the data both aircrafts had might have been incorrect, causing the collision. The second commercial plane crash was less deadly. There was no crash, but it was still terrifying for many in the way it went down. On February 17, 2025, a plane flying from Minneapolis to Toronto, Canada landed upside down. All passengers aboard survived, but this crash will leave traumatic effects and injuries. This could have occurred because of wind or snow but many think that’s not possible. According to AP news, there is an ongoing investigation to give people the answers they need. (CASEY and WAWROW) Multiple other flights have crashed, like an Alaskan flight that crashed killing 10, and a medical transport killing 6 onboard and 1 on the ground.
Many people have wondered if air transport really is getting this dangerous or if it is just getting reported on more. At surface level, it feels like flying is getting much more dangerous but when researching it, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, there was the first commercial plane crash in over 10 years but it was the only out-of-the-ordinary and a total freak accident and was most likely caused by bad data. According to Greenville News, there were over 1,000 aviation incidents in 2024. In January of 2024, there were 80 crashes and in February there were 93. This year in January there were 63 crashes and in February there were 36. (Tran) People should not be worried about flying, as a car crash is statistically more dangerous and is way more likely than an aviation crash. The reason we are hearing about so many more crashes is because of the media. They know that people were scared after the D.C. crash and started to use the smaller complications you wouldn’t usually hear about to get clicks and use people’s fear. The bottom line is that there are risks to every form of transportation and you have to be willing to take the risk, but always make sure to research what the media is telling you before you start worrying about something irrational.
Works Cited
CASEY, MICHAEL, and JOHN WAWROW. “Delta Toronto plane crash: 18 injured, all 80 aboard survive.” AP News, 18 February 2025, https://apnews.com/article/delta-toronto-airport-minneapolis-4ab235ef49b2d3757c9bd5fd8c6606ce. Accessed 2 March 2025.
Frelle, Victoria. “Prior to DC plane crash, last US air disaster killed 50 near Buffalo.” Democrat and Chronicle, 30 January 2025, https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2025/01/30/prior-to-dc-plane-crash-last-us-air-disaster-buffalo-ny/78051489007/. Accessed 2 March 2025.
Oliver, Meg, et al. “The 2009 Colgan Air disaster became a turning point for U.S. aviation. These families led the call for change.” CBS News, 12 February 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colgan-air-disaster-2009-reform/. Accessed 2 March 2025.
Stevens, Matt. “Southwest Airlines Engine Explodes in Flight, Killing a Passenger (Published 2018).” The New York Times, 17 April 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/us/southwest-airlines-explosion.html. Accessed 2 March 2025.
Tran, Nina. “Fear of flying? Here’s the data on 2025 plane accidents vs. 2024.” Greenville Online, 26 February 2025, https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2025/02/26/fear-of-flying-heres-the-data-on-2025-plane-accidents-vs-2024/80522850007/. Accessed 2 March 2025.
