Aviation safety trends show need for continued vigilance

A Statistical Analysis of Commercial Aviation Accidents 1958-2024, Airbus' annual comprehensive review of commercial aviation safety, reveals both progress and concerns in the industry's safety landscape.

The 2024 edition highlights a significant milestone: commercial aviation traffic has fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with nearly 34 million flights matching 2019 volumes. However, this recovery was overshadowed by a notable increase in events compared to 2023. While the previous year recorded no fatal accidents and only one hull loss in commercial aviation, 2024 witnessed four fatal accidents and 12 hull losses.

Despite the industry's long-term trend of steadily improving safety records over recent decades, the events in 2024 emphasise the crucial importance of maintaining rigorous investigation protocols, safety information sharing, investing in prevention strategies, and avoiding complacency.

The start of 2025 has further escalated the need for continued vigilance. Three significant events have occurred: a ground fire involving an A321 at a South Korean airport, a fatal collision between a CRJ-700 aircraft and a military helicopter near Washington DC, USA, and a CRJ-900 that was destroyed after landing in Toronto, Canada, resulting in serious injuries to some occupants.
These recent events demonstrate how quickly aviation safety metrics can shift and underscore the vital importance of continuous efforts to enhance safety involving all participants in the industry.This call to action is a permanent quest for preventing accidents and keeping people safe when flying on a plane.

For a detailed analysis of commercial aviation accidents and the safety benefits of technologies introduced across aircraft generations, visit our accident statistics website. This platform enables users to interactively explore the statistics over time and to see four generations of commercial jets through an immersive 360𝆩 cockpit viewer.