Airplanes collapse more often?

After a series of high-profile disasters, some social media users have suggested that air travel accidents are becoming more common.

Videos to raise hair near Misses began trends on the Internet and US Secretary of Transport Sean Duffy tried to reassure fears in an interview with the US partner of BBC, CBS News. He told viewers that the recent number of air disasters in America is “very unique”.

Duffy's intervention came after a few serious incidents, including a collision in the middle of the air in January between a commercial airline and a military helicopter In Washington, which killed 67 people.

Aircraft frames that roll over after landing in bad weather in Toronto, Canada are also widely shared online, further nourishing the alarm.

And while the poll on the subject is limited, a recent Associated Press survey suggests that these scary accident images have had some influence on the confidence of some users in the US In flying.

But the BBC Verify analyzes data in the United States and around the world and has found that over the last two decades there has been a common tendency to reduce air accidents.

For the United States, air incident numbers are composed of the National Transport Safety Council (NTSB) by the end of January this year.

This NTSB data shows a general decline in US air incidents from 2005 to 2024, despite a significant increase in the total number of flights during this period. He also shows that the January 2025 figure (52) is a lower than in January last year (58) and January 2023 (70).

Data from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN body that monitors global air incidents, show that the number of worldwide accidents for an aircraft also has a clear trend of decline between 2005 and 2023.

ICAO's definition of airplane accident is very broad and not only includes those where passengers or crew are seriously injured or die, but also incidents where the aircraft is damaged and needs repair or disappear.

Data on the number of deaths in air incidents worldwide also show that there has been a decrease over the same period, albeit with spikes in some years, reflecting major air disasters.

In 2014, two such events contributed to a significant jump.

In March, the flight of the Malaysian Airlines MH370 disappeared as it traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. In July, another plane of the Malaysian airlines, MH17, was removed from a rocket created by Russia over Eastern Ukraine, killing almost 300.

Data sets like this tend to see sudden, major fluctuations, Prof. Sir David Spiegelchalter, a professor of Emerit statistics at the University of Cambridge, told BBC Cerify.

“If you count deaths, not accidents, he is obliged to be extremely variable and sensitive to a major incident,” he said.

“Random events do not happen evenly – they tend to cloud. So unfortunately we can expect to look connected to the aircraft, even when they are not.”

Regarding a series of high -profile incidents in the last few months, Ismo Aaltonian, a former Finnish Air Disaster Investigator, told the BBC to check that they were not an indication of a decline in aircraft safety.

“It is very unhappy that we had this period of many different accidents, but people should not draw any conclusions based on this because they are so different cases,” he said.

He noted that some incidents in the last few months have been unpredictable, citing Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which crashed in Kazakhstan in December after Aimed by a Russian anti -air rocketS

Marco Chan, a former pilot and senior lecturer in Buckinghamshire at the New University, told the BBC, checks that raising awareness of air disasters is further fueled as “accidents are getting more exposure from social media platforms”.

A video spreading to Tiktok – which is downloaded from a Superman movie – shows the character, preventing the jet from breaking into a stadium. The accompanying of the video is the inscription: “Pete Motigig every day in the last four years, judging by current events.” The viral clip suggests that aviation disasters have grown after former US Transport Secretary has left the post in January.

A series of incidents in recent years, including the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, has also attracted considerable attention to the media and social media, especially after a The door blown the middle of the flight In January 2024

The concerns about this and several other incidents have been seen by some customers, boycotted planes made by Boeing and a collapse in the price of the company's shares.

Experts told the BBC to check that incidents like these and major crashes were being investigated in detail by the authorities. New details and data from accidents were submitted to pilot training simulators so that they could prepare for such scenarios in the future.

“If you look at simulators today, how advanced they are, they are like a real plane,” said Ismo Aalton. “This is completely different from when I started flying more than 40 years ago.”

Regulators may also impose sanctions on safety disorders, which include fines, suspension of licenses and operational restrictions. Airlines can also be banned by countries and blocks if they do not adhere to safety standards.

Despite the recent number of incidents, the air trip remains far the most secure form of travel.

Of all the deaths related to transport in 2022 in the United States, over 95% have occurred on the road, according to the latest available data from the US Department of Transport. Less than 1% are related to air trip.

And if you look at the numbers regarding the deaths of the distance traveled, the comparative safety of the air trip is even more clear.

In 2022 there were only 0.001 deaths of passengers per 100,000 miles aboard airlines, compared to 0.54 in passenger vehicles, according to the latest data from the National Safety Council, a non-profit organization based in The United States.

“Be careful how you make your trip to the airport,” said Aaltonen. “This is the most dangerous part of the trip compared to the actual flight.”