Students are concerned about upcoming flights as three consecutive US air collisions occurred in the beginning of 2025.
On January 29, an American Airlines airliner collided with a military helicopter into the air, killing 67 people, marking the fatal crash of an American Airlines plane since November 2001, according to CBS News.
Two days after the accident, a medical jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, resulting in seven casualties.
Most recently, a plane crashed at Scottsdale Airport on Monday, killing one person and three injured. According to a statement from the city of Scottsdale, the crash came from a Learjet avoiding the runway upon landing and turning from the runway, crashing into another jet.
“That was a shame,” said Jordyn Begay, a freshman studying chemistry. “There are many flights every day, so the possibilities are scary.”
On his upcoming flight to Los Angeles, Begay said the air travel would make him nervous due to recent incidents. Begay also has multiple flights scheduled during spring break for a meeting in Indiana.
As a strategy to address the fears of flight he has developed over the past month, Begay said he would avoid escaping the topic of crashing planes completely.
“I'm just trying not to think about it,” he said.
These accidents cause fear for students, but aviation professors believe no one should worry about flying. Michael Pearson, clinical associate professor of aviation at ASU, said airline passengers have nothing to worry about. Pearson was a pilot and previously worked as an air traffic controller.
“Even though we have some major challenges right now, flying is still the safest way to travel,” Pearson said.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, in 2023 there were 0.318 aviation accidents per 100,000 scheduled departures.
Second-year student Lily Vega, studying computer science, is worried like Vegay in the frequent crashes of planes in the US because he hates flying already.
“To be honest, it's pretty scary to see more and more happening,” Vega said. “I'm not too big about flights. I usually get plane sick whenever I go, so this just wants to avoid planes even more.”
Vega said that when she saw the plane crash on the news, she wanted to be more careful about everything.
“This could be anyone, a friend, a family member,” Vega said.
Pearson said the crash in Washington, DC was attributed to a failure by air traffic controllers who lacked proper awareness from overwork.
“My assumption may have been that the controller was exhausted due to lack of staffing and overlooked things that shouldn't be overlooked,” Pearson said regarding the crash.
Even among the Reagan Airport protection protocols, Pearson said it was abnormal and should never happen.
“It's really sad,” Pearson said. “There was a system. The system failed.”
As for the crash in Philadelphia, Pearson said it was caused by some sort of “devastating failure,” but it never correlated with the crash in Washington, DC. According to Pearson, the two incidents occurring within a few days are pure coincidence.
“People shouldn't think of a system failure because we're doing things in a totally continuous fashion.
Despite freak accidents over the past month, Pearson said the safest way to travel remains commercial flight, and that applies before and after the Reagan Airport Incident.
Scottsdale Airport is currently closed, according to the city of Scottsdale. This facility is not used by commercial airlines and is primarily used on corporate aircraft.
“It's in Pennsylvania and in DC, so I'm getting too close. Now it's in Scottsdale, where it's in the future,” said Dennis Ortega, a finance student.
Ortega says she is afraid to fly after reading about the crash of a plane, but she tries to maintain her fear deep inside.
“Now, you're watching it more and more often, so it's starting to get scared more,” Ortega said.
Jordan Pusa, a junior study business, continues to trust him like planes and pilot Pearson. He said the statistics don't give him any reason to fear.
“The people who fly planes are very capable,” Pusa said. “Even if there were many accidents in such a close time frame, most of the time I had never been afraid to fly.”
Edited by George Headley, Abigail Beck and Natalia Jarrett.
Contact the reporter at ehprest1@asu.edu and follow @ellis_reports on x.
Just like State Press on Facebook, follow @StatePress on X.
Ellis PrestonPolitical reporter
Ellis is a second-year student studying journalism and mass communication. This is her first semester with the state media. She also works for Arizona PBS and Blaze Radio.
Continue to support student journalism and donate to the state news agency today.
