People across the US are worried about flight safety after several notable planes crashed this year, including a commercial crash in Washington, DC, which killed 67 people. Google's “Flaying Safe” search has jumped in recent weeks. However, this number suggests that 2025 was actually a relatively safe year to fly. At least in terms of total accidents.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board number, there are usually around 20 fatal aviation accidents per month in January and February. In contrast, there were only 10 fatal aviation accidents this January, and six fatal accidents in February. Data covers all US civil aviation, from large commercial aircraft to private jets.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, was not surprised by the numbers. “Commercial aviation is a very safer way to move a large number of people and is becoming safer each year,” he said.
Longtime safety consultant Goelz explained that the inclusion of private flights dramatically shapes the number of NTSBs. Wealthy individuals take out their private planes in the summer months. These flights are extremely dangerous as these flights do not travel regularly when faced with summer storms and are often fed by inexperienced pilots.
Still, it is worth noting that the data only examines the number of fatal accidents, not the number of deaths. This year's Air Disaster was partly why Washington's death toll was so shocking after American Airlines flights collided with the Army Black Hawk helicopter. Another crash in Alaska that killed 10 people on February 6th was noticeable. They were the deadliest in the United States in 10 years, CNN reported.
Donald Trump grabbed the crash in Washington as an opportunity to criticize the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) program. He argued that the Federal Aviation Administration's commitment to hiring people with disabilities was “one of the reasons why our country goes to hell.” His administration decided earlier this month to fire around 400 of the FAA's 45,000 employees, prompting concerns about aviation safety. (On Thursday, the judge temporarily suspended Trump's mass shootings.)
“He seemed like a fool moving on with that theory within hours of tragedy,” Goerz said of the president's analysis. “People were once again treated by the underlying cruelty.”
