The spate of catastrophic aviation disasters as recent as Friday has spread anxiety among flyers, further stoked by fears of the Trump administration’s restructuring of the federal agency tasked with keeping the skies safe.
On Friday morning, a small plane carrying three people crashed in Boca Raton, Florida, killing all on board. That came a day after a sightseeing helicopter plummeted into the Hudson River, killing all six people onboard.
In February, hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration workers were fired as part of DOGE’s push to gut government spending and downsize the federal workforce, led by billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk.
U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who was a passenger in an earlier, non-fatal plane incident in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, raised concerns on his X page about the FAA’s “dangerous” cuts, which was quickly lambasted by U.S. Secretary Sean Duffy, who told the Democratic rep to “stop the fear mongering,” adding that “no safety-critical positions at the FAA have been cut.”
Fears over the safety in the skies began building earlier this year; in January, 67 people were killed when an American Airlines regional jet and an Army helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. It was the deadliest air disaster in over two decades. Fatal crashes also occurred in Philadelphia, Alaska and Arizona.
But have there been more catastrophic air crashes this year than in prior years? Are we seeing more planes crashing than ever before? Here’s the data.
Are there more plane crashes lately? 2024 plane crashes vs 2025 plane crashes
There have been 298 aviation crashes in the U.S. in 2025, through April 2 (not including the NYC helicopter crash or Florida crashes). In 2024, there were 336 aviation crashes during the same time period.
How about deadly crashes? In 2024 through April 2, there were 66 fatal crashes. In 2025, considering the same time period, there have been 48 (not including the NYC helicopter crash).
How many plane crashes in 2025?
There have been 298 aviation crashes in 2025, through April 2, according to data from the NTSB. Data was collected through the investigation query, and not through the NTSB’s monthly aviation dashboard, which was marked updated on April 11, 2025, but does not include crash data after March 9, 2025:
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April (through April 2, not including NYC and Florida crashes): 11
How many deadly plane crashes in 2025?
There has been a total of 48 deadly plane crashes in the U.S. through April 2, 2025, according to the latest data from the NTSB. Data does not include any crashes after that date, so the NYC helicopter crash is omitted.
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April (through April 2, not including NYC or any possible fatalities in Florida crash): 4
How many plane crashes in 2024?
There were 1,417 aviation crashes in 2024, and through April 2, there were 336, according to the NTSB’s data.
How many deadly plane crashes in 2024?
In 2024, there were a total of 258 fatal plane crashes, according to data from the NTSB. Here’s the breakdown by month, which shows the first four months of the year had 66 fatal crashes.
Lori Comstock is a New Jersey-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Why are there so many plane crashes in 2025? Boca Raton crash latest
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