A helicopter collides with a plane. An air traffic control tower goes dark. Near misses.
With all these high profile air traffic problems, you might wonder if air travel is safe. Here is what the numbers tell us: Air travel is very safe.
Commercial airline flights carried 2.6 billion domestic passengers in 2024 and there were no reported fatalities in the United States from accidents involving large commercial passenger airlines, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) data.
The broader category of commercial aviation, which includes cargo, commuter, and air taxi services, saw 179 fatal aviation accidents in the U.S. in 2024, resulting in 306 reported deaths, according to NTSB data. None of these were commercial passenger air accidents.
In fact, the January 2025 collision between a Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines plane represented the first commercial passenger air fatalities since 2009. In that crash, 64 people died, bringing the total fatalities in air accidents for 2025 up to 87, a number that includes accidents that involve small private planes.
Even air towers are extremely safe, though everyone agrees those systems need to be updated. During a 90-second outage at Newark Liberty International Airport on April 28, 2025, pilots followed established procedures to maintain safety, preventing collisions. Aircraft have onboard collision avoidance systems like TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System), which operate independently of ground-based ATC. These systems ensure planes maintain safe distances even if ATC loses contact.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 51 of the FAA's 138 ATC systems are, unsustainable' due to outdated functionality, lack of spare parts, and retiring technicians. The FAA has 64 ongoing modernization projects, but some won't be completed for 10'13 years. Still, outdated equipment often leads to delays rather than direct safety threats
