Airplane crashes are one of the most unsettling aspects of travel that many of us prefer not to think about. However, they continue to occur, and some high-profile incidents have recently captured widespread attention.
This week, headlines reported a crash involving a plane traveling from Ahmedabad, India, to London Gatwick, and earlier this year, an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter over Washington D.C. These tragedies can make it seem as though plane crashes are more frequent than ever, leading some to question whether air travel is still safe.
As of 2025, there have been eight commercial aircraft incidents worldwide, in addition to crashes involving private and military planes. The Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives reports a total of 49 aircraft crashes, resulting in over 250 fatalities.
A former pilot has shared his insight on why incidents like the recent Air India crash appear to be becoming more common. Shawn Pruchnicki, a former commercial pilot, crash investigator, and expert in accident causation, offered his perspective in an interview with the Daily Mail. He shared that he wasn’t surprised when the news broke on January 29 about a commercial airliner being struck by a Black Hawk helicopter above Washington D.C.’s Reagan International Airport.
He explained, “I have long feared that it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ such a catastrophe would happen, but ‘where’ and ‘when.’”
Pruchnicki, now an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University in the College of Engineering, also recounted a near-miss of his own. He recalled a situation when he was landing at JFK, and a 747 was approaching on a parallel runway. The control tower asked the pilot if he could stop short of their position, and the pilot responded affirmatively, so they were cleared to cross the runway.
Pruchnicki recalled, “We had a gut feeling that this pilot – who possibly wasn’t familiar with the airport – couldn’t do what he said, so we decided not to cross and to stay where we were.”
A few moments later, the 747 sped past them at high speed, narrowly avoiding a collision. “If we’d crossed the runway as directed, there would have been a collision,” he said.
Pruchnicki pointed to several factors contributing to the increase in crashes, beginning with the chronic shortage of air traffic controllers. “I feel for these controllers,” he said. “They are over-worked and over-stressed – they know that if they make a mistake, someone could die.”
He also highlighted another issue: “Regional and national airlines are hiring pilots and promoting them with less experience than ever before.” While he noted the absence of studies on the impact of limited experience on flight safety, he stressed that without proactive measures, accidents would continue to occur more frequently.
“We need more qualified candidates in the pipeline for air traffic controllers,” Pruchnicki emphasized.
He issued a stark warning, saying, “We need to continue to develop and invest in technology that will help pilots and air traffic controllers do their jobs – not to replace them but to assist them.”
He concluded with a cautionary note: “Make no mistake, there is still a pretty good safety buffer in place in our skies, but it’s shrinking, and we need to act now if we want to stop it from shrinking further.”
Source: unilad.com