Experts send travelers clear message about flying: This is what they say about air travel safety in 2025

The airplane crash on Jan. 29, 2025 was the worst in the US since 2001. The American Airlines plane collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter, which resulted in the deaths of 67 people. Just two days later another airplane crashed, this time in Philadelphia resulting in 7 deaths and 20 people injured as well as several homes, businesses and cars destroyed.

People began wondering why the sudden spike in airplane accidents. Since then smaller mishaps have taken place. Recently at Chicago O’Hare International Airport when an airport worker was critically injured on Feb. 2 after a vehicle and a plane collided, causing the vehicle to flip over. Then on Feb. 5, a Delta Air Lines and Japan Airlines planes collided on the ground in Seattle

“All passengers from the incident involving Japan Airlines flight 68 & Delta Air Lines flight 1921 have been deplaned with no reported injuries,” the airport wrote in a statement. “Airlines are working to accommodate passengers as needed. Airport response crews will be moving the aircraft off of the ramp taxiway.”

Flying has always been considered the safest way to travel, but now people are wondering if it still is. With recent cutbacks and changes under the Trump Administration, travellers are not feeling as safe as they used to.

What experts say about air travel safety

The data from 2002 to 2022 reveals that flying in the US is the safest way to travel. During those 20 years only 689 people were injured, an average of 33 per year. A total of 796 people died during air travel in the US between 2002 and 2022, but only 27 percent of those deaths occurred during commercial flights while 73 percent took place on small aircraft.

If we compare that data to passenger car and truck accidents, the difference is massive with 552,009 deaths taking place during those 20 years, an average of over 26,000 per year on the road.

The 2024 Transportation Statistics Report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported air travel as the safest form of travelling. “Transportation incidents for all modes claimed 44,546 lives in 2022, of which all but 2,032 involved highway motor vehicles. Preliminary estimates for 2023 suggest a further decline in fatalities,” the report says. “There were no deaths from crashes on large commercial airlines in 2023, but several hundred deaths occurred in crashes in general aviation, commuter air, and air taxi services.”

The data proves that air travel is safe and has been for a long time. Only time will tell if Trump’s Administration can get past this awful start and make travellers feel at ease in the air again.

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