The US has been rocked by successive fatal aircraft accidents in the same week, after a Philadelphia “air ambulance” crashed and exploded on impact on Saturday. The incident followed the American Airlines crash on Wednesday.
The Philadelphia plane crash occurred shortly after take-off and within the city’s metropolitan area. This led to some very dramatic footage of the crash and the fiery aftermath from doorbell cams and dashcams.
Wednesday’s Washington DC crash occurred between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter and killed 67 people. The Philadelphia crash killed five.
In aviation circles, there has been an ongoing debate about increasing use of software and automation in modern aircraft. While purists favour direct pilot control over the hardware, many argue that software integration serves to make commercial aviation idiot-proof for under-trained pilots, especially at budget and Third World airlines whose pilots don’t necessarily have optimal access to simulators and training.
The ever-increasing number of commercial aviation passengers (Source: Statista)
The optimistic, pro-technology argument that better software is making commercial aviation safer and safer was hard to dispute by the end of 2023. That year saw only the Yeti Airlines crash in Pokhara, Nepal, which killed 72 people and took place on 15 January. The Yeti Airlines aircraft was a 2007 ATR-72, manufactured by Franco-Italian ATR.
But 2024 saw incidents at six major airliners. There was additionally a fatal ATR-72 crash in Brazil of an aircraft recently purchased from Indonesia.
Major airliners seeing injuries or fatalities in 2024 included Japan, Alaska, Swiss, Latam, Singapore and Jeju. The last was the worst of these, occurring in Muan, Korea on a 2009 Boeing 737 after a bird strike was followed by landing-gear failure.
Singapore Airlines saw 104 injuries and one death on a Boeing 777, manufactured in 2008. Latam had 50 injuries between Sydney and Auckland on a 2015-manufactured Boeing 787. And Alaska Airlines had three injuries on a 2023-made Boeing 737-MAX flight after a door blew open as the plane climbed after take-off.
Airbus had one on-board fatality, on a 2017-model A220 after engine failure filled the cabin of a flight from Bucharest to Zurich.
The trend-line is that commercial aviation has become safer by the decade. Yet it seems that despite the technological advancements, the inherent risks can never be banished entirely.