Plane crashes in 2025

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

Duffy’s intervention came after several serious incidents, including a mid-air collision in January between a commercial airliner and a military helicopter in Washington DC, in which 67 people died.

Footage of a plane flipping over after landing in poor weather in Toronto, Canada, has also been widely shared online, further fueling alarm.

And while polling on the subject is limited, one recent Associated Press survey suggested these startling images of accidents have had some impact on some US consumers’ confidence in flying.

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

In March, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared as it travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. In July, another Malaysian Airlines plane, MH17, was shot down by a Russian-made missile over eastern Ukraine, killing almost 300.

Data sets such as this are inclined to see sudden, large fluctuations, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge, told BBC Verify.

A string of incidents in recent years involving the Boeing 737 Max aircraft has also attracted significant attention in the media and on social media, especially after a door blew out mid-flight in January 2024.