When was the last passenger plane crash?

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.



The most recent major commercial passenger accidents occurred in early 2026. On January 28, 2026, a Learjet 45XR business jet crashed while attempting to land in Baramati, India, killing all five people on board. Earlier that month, on January 17, 2026, an ATR 42-512 operated by Indonesia Air Transport crashed in a remote mountain region of South Sulawesi, resulting in the loss of all ten people on board. In terms of larger-scale commercial aviation, one of the most significant recent tragedies was in July 2025, when an Angara Airlines Antonov An-24 crashed into a mountain in Russia, killing all 48 people on board. While aviation remains statistically the safest mode of transport in 2026, these incidents involve smaller regional or charter flights. The last major "wide-body" jet crash involving a major global carrier was the China Eastern Flight 5735 in March 2022, which tragically resulted in 132 fatalities.

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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.

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The largest loss of life on board a single-aircraft is the 520 fatalities in the 1985 Japan Airlines Flight 123 accident, the largest loss of life in multiple aircraft in a single accident is the 583 fatalities in the two Boeing 747's that collided in the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster, while the largest loss of life ...

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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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October 31, 2023 A single-engine Piper PA-32 crashed south of Marion, Ohio, around 11:20 am local time on Tuesday, October 31. Two people were on board. The FAA and NTSB will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide further updates.

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Reflecting this increase in miles flown, preliminary estimates of the total number of accidents involving a U.S. registered civilian aircraft increased from 1,139 in 2020 to 1,225 in 2021. The number of civil aviation deaths increased from 349 in 2020 to 376 in 2021.

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1,525 passenger jet airliner accidents, involving 29,165 on-board fatalities (crew and passengers) and 800 innocent bystanders, with 717 of those accidents involving destroyed aircraft; and.

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According to experts, the model (737-800) is considered to be the safest aircraft ever made. The 737-800 belongs to the aviation giant's next-generation aircraft which also includes 600, 700, and 900.

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The improvement, according to Smith, is due in part to better pilot training and improvement in onboard technology. Pilot training now goes far beyond the technical skills required to operate an aircraft.

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However, the FAA say that in general aviation 69% of crashes at night cause pilot fatality compared to 59% during day. Various FAA/NTSB reports state (f. ex: This) that there's more crashes during day than night but that's hard to interpret: There's a lot more planes in the air during the day.

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However, crashes are most likely to occur in single engine planes ? and typically in general aviation rather than on commercial airlines. In fact, 79 percent of all aircraft accidents and 72 percent of fatal crashes involved single engine planes.

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On Aug. 2, 1985, Delta Flight 191 crashed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport at 6:05 p.m. killing 137 people. Twenty-seven people survived the crash.

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8 Steps to Overcoming Your Fear of Flying
  1. Latch on to triggers that set you off. ...
  2. Step onto the airplane with knowledge. ...
  3. Anticipate your anxiety. ...
  4. Separate fear from danger. ...
  5. Recognize that common sense makes no sense. ...
  6. Smooth over things that go bump in the flight. ...
  7. Educate fellow fliers how to help you. ...
  8. Value each flight.


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Climate change is straining a fragile industry Mass flight delays and cancellations happen because of bad weather. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, or even extreme heat aren't new, but record-breaking temperatures and more frequent weather disasters in the past year added stress on the air travel industry.

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General Aviation Accident Statistics The general aviation accident rate has declined significantly in the last 20 years. The number of general aviation accidents has remained essentially unchanged in the last five years. Understanding why accidents happen can help us become safer pilots.

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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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While AirlineRatings.com does not officially release rankings for the least-safe airlines, the following carriers featured at the bottom of the list with one-star rankings: Nepal Airlines (Nepal), Airblue (Pakistan), Sriwijaya Air (Indonesia), Blue Wing (Suriname), Pakistan International Airlines and Air Algerie ( ...

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On Average, 4 Planes Crash Every Day: Leading Causes of General Aviation Accidents, What You Need to Know. Plane crashes are more common than one might think. While commercial plane crashes draw more attention due to their size and recognizable names, general aviation accidents occur much more frequently.

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Yet such disappearances are not that uncommon: according to records assembled by the Aviation Safety Network, 100 aircraft have gone missing in flight and never been recovered since 1948.

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