Photo credit: ABC News
The traditional belief is that air transport is the safest. However, so many people are doubting that with the frequency of plane crashes this year.
USA Today reports that two small planes collided in the air near a southern Arizona airport, killing two people on Wednesday and marking the second mid-air crash in the US this year.
Two single-engine planes collided around 8:30 am at the Marana Regional Airport, about 20 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and local police.
The crash is the latest in a slate of recent aviation disasters in the US, including the devastating mid-air crash between a military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines commercial plane outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last month.
All 67 people on both aircraft died.
Meanwhile, experts are convinced that aviation remains extremely safe. Raising concern was another incident on Monday when a Delta Air Lines regional jet carrying 80 people flying out of Minneapolis crashed after flipping at Toronto Pearson International Airport. a total of 18 people were injured but there were no fatalities.
There have been 94 aviation accidents in 2025, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board. there were 63 in January and 31 in February, the agency says as of Wednesday.
Data posted by the safety board reported 13 fatal accidents this year, including 10 in January and three in February as of Monday. On Wednesday the fatal midair collision in Marana brought the annual total to 14.
There have been several major deadly US aviation disasters this year. They happened within the span of two weeks in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Alaska and Arizona.
However, the January 29 crash in Washington that killed 67 people is the only fatal commercial aviation crash in 2025 and in the past 15 years.
At least 87 people have died in five major US aviation disasters in 2025. They are:
X January 29 (Washington, DC) – An American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport just outside Washington after the plane departed from Wichita, Kansas. Sixty-seven people were killed.
X January 31 (Philadelphia) – A small medical jet carrying a child patient crashed into a Philadelphia neighbourhood. Seven people died, including all six on board the plane and another in a car on the ground.
X February 6 (Alaska) – A small plane carrying 10 people crashed in Alaska after losing speed and altitude and vanishing from the radar. The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, heading from the village of Unalakleet to the town of Nome, was recovered. No one survived, the Alaska Department of Public Safety confirmed.
X February 10 (Arizona) – Two private jets collided at the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona killing one person and injuring four. The collision happened when one plane veered off the runway after landing and crashed into the other on the ramp, the FAA reported. One person died and four others were injured.
X February 19 (Arizona) – Two single-engine planes collided midair outside the Marana Regional Airport in Arizona, killing two people.
Between 2005 to the fall of 2024, there have been 5,066 near-midair collisions reported by any piloted aircraft, according to CBS News.
1,123 of these near-midair collisions involved at least one commercial aircraft averaging around 56 per year.
However, flying on US commercial airlines is still considered safe. A
A 2024 Transportation Statistics Report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says: “Transportation incidents for all modes claimed 44,546 lives in 2022, of which all but 2,032 involved highway motor vehicles. Preliminary estimates for 2023 suggest a further decline in fatalities. There were no deaths from crashes on large commercial airlines in 2023, but several hundred deaths occurred in crashes in general aviation, commuter air, and taxi services.”
