When was the last big airline crash?

* March 21, 2022: A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in the mountains of Guangxi near Guangzhou, China, leading to the tragic loss of all 133 people on board. * January 9, 2021: A Boeing 737, operated by Sriwijaya Air, crashed into the Java Sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta.



As of early March 2026, the aviation industry remains one of the safest modes of transport, but several notable incidents have occurred recently. The deadliest accident of 2026 so far was the February 27th crash of a Bolivian Air Force C-130 Hercules at El Alto International Airport, which overran the runway and resulted in at least 24 fatalities. In the commercial sector, the start of the year saw three fatal crashes involving smaller jets: an Indonesia Air Transport ATR 42 in South Sulawesi (January 17), a Bombardier Challenger 650 in Bangor, Maine (January 25), and a Learjet 45 in Baramati, India (January 28). While modern technology and AI-driven maintenance have made "hull loss" events on major international carriers extremely rare, these regional and private aviation incidents serve as a reminder of the constant vigilance required in flight safety and the impact of severe weather on smaller aircraft.

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The United States' last fatal accident was in 2009, when Colgan Air flight 3407 crashed while flying from Newark to Buffalo, killing everyone onboard. The NTSB investigation declared it to be pilot error, citing pilot fatigue as a factor.

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September 24, 2023 A single-engine Beechcraft BE23 crashed in a field near Roger M Dreyer Memorial Airport in Gonzales, Texas, around 7:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, September 24. Only the pilot was on board. The FAA and NTSB will investigate.

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Your chances of being involved in a fatal plane crash are incredibly small – around 1 in 11 million, according to Harvard researchers. While your odds of being in a plane accident are about 1 in 1.2 million, survivability rates are about 95.7% – so the odds are with you no matter how you look at it.

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The quality of supplied air on board an aircraft is much better than most indoor environments. This along with other cabin features including the mandatory usage of masks on board and the requirements around tests and/or vaccination certificates, make the risk of contracting COVID-19 to be very low.

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As per the officials, there is a commercial plane crash every 16.7 million flights. It means for every 1,000,000 flights, 0.06 planes crash. The aviation authorities have implemented strict safety protocols which have reduced plane crashes by roughly 5.3 % per year over the past 20 years.

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On average, there are 1,662 plane crashes per year. There are roughly 938 small plane crashes per year (planes under 12,500 lbs). Taxiing planes leads to 54 accidents, 4 deaths, and 24 accidents per year. There are up to 90,000,000 flight hours logged per year globally.

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Flying Is Only Getting Safer Over Time Global flight accident rates have been steadily declining over the years for a number of reasons, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

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The NTSB says that despite more people flying than ever, the accident rate for commercial flights has remained the same for the last two decades, and the survivability rate is a high 95.7 percent.

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Running since 1929, Hawaiian is among the oldest airlines in the world but, remarkably, it has never suffered a single fatal crash or hull loss.

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The top 10 safest airlines 2023
  • Qantas.
  • Air New Zealand.
  • Etihad Airways.
  • Qatar Airways.
  • Singapore Airlines.
  • TAP Air Portugal.
  • Emirates.
  • Alaska Airlines.


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The total fatalities due to aviation accidents since 1970 is 83,772. The total number of incidents is 11,164.

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Aircraft age is not a safety factor. However, if the aircraft is older and hasn't been refurbished properly, it may cause flyers some inconvenience such as overheating, faulty air conditioning, or faulty plumbing in the lavatory. More important than an aircraft's age is its history.

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Human Factors in Aviation. According to the NTSB investigations performed into air accidents, over 88 percent of all chartered plane crashes are attributed, at least in part, to pilot error. In private or general aviation, loss of aircraft control by the pilot is the number one cause of plane and helicopter crashes.

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Driving vs. Flying By the Numbers The overall fatality risk is 0.23% — you would need to fly every day for more than 10,000 years to be in a fatal plane crash. On the other hand, the chances of dying in a car collision are about 1 in 101, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

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The truth is that the majority of aviation accidents happen on the runway during takeoff or landing, not while the airplane is cruising in the air. Three reasons why airport runway accidents are the most common of all aviation accidents: Takeoffs and landings are when planes are closest to the ground.

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