Are there several plane crashes this year? This does not show federal data

An air collision between a jet of passengers and a helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, DC, a Medevac jet that entered the ground and exploded in Philadelphia. A commercial flight that was thrown upside down while landing in Toronto.

In recent weeks, the videos of the planes that collapse and the burns have populated social networks and news flows. For many people, the frequency of disasters seemed out of the ordinary. “(Seven) plane accidents since the Trump administration has congratulated on” restoring aviation safety “, wrote Liberal Brian Tyler Cohen 16 February on the threads.

Posting listed the specific aviation events from January 29 to February 15 and not all were fatal flight or passenger collapse, a sign of increasing awareness of smaller aircraft accidents and other non -prite accidents. Social Media users and politicians also called the recent executive order of President Donald Trump Federal employment and Aviation safety After these aviation accidents.

“A 400% increase in aircraft accidents is absolutely alarming, has no connection with” Dei “hiring and is absolutely connected to illegal mass fires.” February 17 Post Fire said.

But these statements are misleading. Although aircraft accident news is alarming, data show that passenger commercial accidents are rare, and the total number of recent aviation accidents is not out of the ordinary. Commercial flight is very statistical.

In the last decade, the National Transport Security Council has registered over 1,100 aviation accidents and incidents each year. Rarely involves commercial aircraft. That accident/incident figure is small compared to Over 45,000 flights that the air traffic organization of the Federal Aviation Administration deals every day.

Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant and the former NTSB air safety investigator, told the politicifact that the public is increasingly aware of aircraft accidents due to “recent accidents of the commercial air carrier who killed or injured the paying passengers” .

“Commercial aviation accidents like these are extremely rare, so when they happen, they get a lot of attention,” Guzzetti said.

Trump has seen more accidents in the first month in office than other presidents?

No, federal data shows that Trump’s numbers are not an anomaly compared to other presidents.

Ntsb’s Case analysis and online reporting He recorded 48 US aviation accidents on January 20, when Trump was inaugurated until February 20. This number did not include three accidents that Cohen noted in his post: Crash Delta in Toronto; February 12 of the accident in the Gulf of San Diego; or the accident of February 16 in Georgia. Can take Around two weeks after an accident for a preliminary report to appear in the database.

Five of the 48 accidents were fatal:

• Sixty -seven people died in the accident of January 29 Washington, DC.

• On January 25, a plane crashed near Charlottesville, Virginia, killing the pilot.

• On January 31, a Medevac jet collapsed in Philadelphia, killing six people on board and a person on the ground.

• On February 6 a Regional flight of the airline He collapsed in Nome, Alaska, killing 10 people.

• On February 14, a plane crashed Pierson, Floridakilling the pilot.

NTSB is still investigating these accidents.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Wrote in a February 17 X Post“No president had several planes collapsed in their first month in office only Donald Trump.”

The NTSB does not classify aviation accidents in terms of “collapses”, but its data shows that former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had several aviation accidents in the first month than Trump in the first month of the second mandate.

Swalwell’s Cassie Balouue, Cassie Balouue, told the politicifact that he refers to “the two major commercial catastrophes that took place in the first month of Trump’s current presidency.”

In the first month of Biden’s term, there were 61 aviation accidents and incidents, 12 fatals. Two of them involved commercial air carriers, but none was fatal, nor did it involve an accident.

In the first month of Obama’s first term in 2009, investigators registered 88 aviation and incident accidents – three involving commercial air carriers – with 19 of them resulting in a total of 89 victims. One New York Crash He killed 50 people.

Trump’s first month in 2017 registered 85 aviation and incident accidents, 12 of them resulting in a total of 18 deaths. ​

How often do aviation accidents occur?

NTSB investigates and classifies events involving aircraft and passengers as “accidents” and “incidents”, and the data show that both are quite frequent. Not all involve dramatic fire scenes or aircraft falling from the sky, but the most prompt investigations.

The code of federal regulations It defines an “accident” of the aircraft that occurs between the moment when any person deals with aircraft and landing and “in which any person suffers serious death or injury or in which the aircraft receives substantial damages.”

An “incident” is “associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations.” For example, a The civilian drone collided with a Canadian firefighter plane January 9 in Los Angeles, harmful and grounded. No one was injured; Ntsb has classified it as an incident.

Federal Regulations Code governs operations Under air carriers (large commercial aircraft, including merchandise and passengers), commute carriers (aircraft with less than 10 passengers) and general aviation (aircraft, including various turboprops and jets).

In the past decade more than 1,100 Civil aviation accidents – Accidents implying Non-military flights using aircraft recorded in the US every year, with over 300 victims registered annually. Air transport accidentswhich include trading passengers, as well as commercial freight flights, on average 27 per year from 2012 to 2022. Of 300 accidents, six were fatal.

In a 2024 ReportThe Bureau of Transport Statistics said that between 2013 and 2022, US passenger airlines registered 12 victims.

It is not unprecedented for accidents of fatal commercial air transport happens in a short time, but it is extremely rare.

On December 8, 2005A Southwest Airlines flight rolled through the fences on a road and collided with a car, killing a child and hurting several other people. A few days later, on December 19, 2005A plane operating as an Ocean Airways flight from Chalk has crashed into a transport channel, killing 20 people.

Before January 29 Washington, DC, Crash, the last fatal accident involving a large commercial aircraft was 2022when a ramp agent was killed after being aspirated in a engine. Before that, the last fatal flight accident for passengers was 2019When a Penair flight exceeded a track in Alaska, killing a person.

from 2012-2021NTSB issued findings for 11,739 General aviation accidents. In 81% of cases, investigators identified as a factor the problems of the staff. This may include how employees and operators have performed tasks, their actions and decisions, their psychological state, as well as their experience and knowledge. In 80% of cases, investigators called aircraft problems as a contribution cause and, in 44% of accidents, environmental problems were cited.

Guzzetti said that aviation accidents are no more fatal.

“The statistics indicate that the number of general fatal aviation accidents has been relatively flat in recent years and, in fact, the fatal accident rate has decreased slightly,” he said.

This is confirmed by the NTSB Aviation Aviation Accidents, which shows Accident rates decreasing between 2012 and 2021.

The chief correspondent of the Politifact, Louis Jacobson, contributed to this story.