High-profile plane crashes have cast a shadow over the aviation industry since the start of 2025 — and speculation is swirling around the cause of the incidents.
Monday’s Delta Airlines crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport is the latest in a series of accidents that have sparked widespread anxiety and raised questions over the safety of air travel.
Four major aviation disasters have occurred this year, claiming the lives of at least 85 people in the space of two weeks.
On January 29, an American Airlines jet and a US Army helicopter collided in the air over Washington DC. Two days later, a medical jet carrying six people including a sick child nosedived into a residential street in Philadelphia.
Subsequent crashes took place in Alaska and Arizona, and fears are now rising that flying is no longer the safest way to get around.
Has the industry been hit by bad luck in 2025, or is there more to the recent aviation disasters?
While there have been multiple major crashes in January and February alone, aviation experts insist that flying remains ‘incredibly safe.’
Here is a round-up of the main concerns after the recent spate of plane crashes:
Departmental cuts and air traffic control
An investigation is continuing into the Washington DC disaster, which saw an American Airlines plane and a US Army helicopter crash mid-air near Reagan National Airport, killing all 67 passengers and crew.
Rumours focused on the Air Traffic Control tower staffing levels, fuelled by President Donald Trump’s accusations against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Trump suggested that the FAA’s equality and diversity policies were to blame for the crash.
At the time of the Washington crash, one controller was reportedly handling both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at Reagan National Airport, which some are claiming was ‘not normal.’
One ATC source has said this can be normal practice when covering for breaks or lunches, according to ABC News.
Bernard Lavelle, an aviation consultant with BL Aviation Consulting, told Metro previously that there is a ‘shortage of ATC staff in the US’ along with shortage of pilots.
‘They have tried to step up recruitment. But recruitments is one thing, training them is another and it takes time,’ he said.
US Air Traffic Controllers have reportedly been under stress for years.
Federal officials have warned of understaffing due to uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements.
Now, the Trump government has started firing FAA employees in the aftermath of the crash and taking aim at the agency which regulates civil aviation and air traffic.
Hundreds of FAA employees were told on Friday that they were fired. An air traffic controller, who wished to remain anonymous, told AP that the firing spree includes staff for FAA radar, and landing and navigational maintenance.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy insisted on Monday that ‘zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.’
Human error
One potential cause could be human error, whether in the air traffic control or within the aircraft.
The cause of the Washington crash remains a mystery, although the black box was recovered in the days following the crash.
New information has now emerged suggesting that the helicopter pilots, who were on a doomsday training mission, may have had mistaken data about their flight altitude.
Jennifer Homendy, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said that the crew could have had ‘bad data.’
The NTS said one Black Hawk helicopter pilot thought they were flying at 400 feet while the other thought they were at 300 feet, according to ABC News.
‘We are looking at the possibility of there may be bad data,’ Homendy said.
On recordings from the ATC tower in the moments leading up to the disaster, the ATC tower can be heard trying to make contact with the chopper pilots who appear to fail to answer.
Extreme weather
The Washington tragedy was followed by a dramatic crash at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport when a Delta Airlines flight crashed and flipped around on the runway yesterday.
All 80 passengers and crew were rescued alive, but 18 were taken to hospital and three suffered critical injuries, including a child.
Last week, a United Express flight UA4427 slid off the runway to the grass verge after landing at St Louis Lambert International Airport on February 12 in snowy conditions.
However, Bernard Lavelle, an aviation consultant with BL Aviation Consulting, has insisted that, despite the crashes, aviation is ‘still incredibly safe.’
He said the three crashes are a ‘series of bad luck incidents.’
Although the Washington, Toronto and St Louis incidents are unrelated, they have one thing in common – the type of aircraft.
In the three crashes, ‘all the aircraft were Bombardier CRJ,’ Mr Lavelled said, adding that this was ‘interesting’ but a ‘coincidence.’
‘It’s a coincidence. They are all different types of CRJ and the record is actually pretty strong,’ he explained.
‘The one off the runway and yesterday seem to be due to extreme weather conditions. Toronto was hit by two storms and the weather was pretty atrocious.
‘It would have been challenging conditions.’
While it is difficult to say exactly what happened while the safety board investigates the Delta Airlines incident, it is ‘very unusual for an aircraft to flip over like that,’ the expert said.
The aircraft at Toronto might have been hit by wind shear, which is caused by a sudden change in wind speed and direction, and together with bad weather ‘it could have slipped.’
‘It’s very rare. There have been no fatalities and I hope that remains the case.’
Canadian airports are ‘well equipped’ to deal with icy runways, snowy conditions and winter storms which is a yearly phenomenon at airports like Toronto.
‘They are very used to it and they have the equipment to ensure that the runway is safe to land on.’
Pilots flying to the rough conditions of the Canadian winter ‘will be used to those conditions.’
‘It would not have been an unknown. They clearly felt comfortable enough to make the landing rather than aborting it. It’s possible that something changed at the last minute.’
He said there has been speculation that there might have been ice on the runway, but the airport would have been prepared for the ground conditions.
‘I’d have no problem flying. You are more likely to have an accident on the way to the airport than while flying,’ he added.
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