More airliner deaths last year despite fewer accidents: IATA

MONTREAL

More people died in air crashes in 2025 despite fewer reported accidents, the main aviation industry body said on March 9, blaming two high profile disasters in India and the United States.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said there were 394 dead in eight fatal air crashes last year, against 244 dead from seven fatal accidents in 2024.

IATA highlighted the role of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad in June last year which left 241 dead and a collision in the U.S. between a Bombardier CRJ700, operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, and a military helicopter in January 2025 that killed 64 people on board the plane.

IATA's figures only counted the dead from the airliners.

Not tallied in its data were the 19 people killed on the ground in the Indian crash, and the three crew on the U.S. military helicopter who died in the Washington collision.

According to IATA's figures, there were 51 accidents among 38.7 million flights last year. In 2024 there were 54 accidents in 37.9 million flights.

IATA said there were 1.32 accidents per million flights, or an accident every 759,646 flights. This improved from 1.42 accidents for a million flights in 2024.

But it is a rise from the average for 2021-2025 of 1.27 accidents per million flights.

IATA highlighted a major improvement in safety in the past 15 years, with a deadly accident every 3.5 million flights between 2012 and 2016, against a fatal accident every 5.6 million flights today. It attributed this to technical improvements and better training.

The association said the most common accidents now were a "tailstrike," when a jet tail hits the runway, or a problem with undercarriage.