The number of airline accidents and the accident rate both improved on a year-over-year basis in 2025 but were still higher than the five-year average for each category, according to the International Air Transport Association 2025 Annual Safety Report. Also, the number of fatal accidents and onboard fatalities in 2025 each increased compared with 2024.

The 2025 all-accident rate of 1.32 per million flights was better than the 1.42 recorded in 2024, but the 2021-2025 five-year average is lower at 1.27 per million flights, according to IATA. In 2025, there were 51 accidents out of 38.7 million flights, fewer than the 54 accidents out of 37.9 million flights reported in 2024. The 2025 number is higher than the 2021-2025 five-year average of 44 accidents.

Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said, “Accidents are extremely rare, and each one reminds us to be even more focused on continuous improvement through global standards and collaboration guided by safety data.”  He continued, “The goal for aviation remains zero accidents and zero fatalities.”

There were eight fatal accidents in 2025, one more than the seven reported in 2024 and more than the six for the 2021-2025 five-year average. The number of onboard fatalities also increased in 2025, to 394 from 244 in 2024. Again, that is higher than the 2021-2025 five-year average of 198.

The North America all-accident rate increased to 1.68 accidents per million flights in 2025 from 1.49 in 2024, which also was above the region’s five-year average of 1.33, according to IATA. The fatality risk rate increased to 0.21 from zero in 2024. The most common accident types in 2025 were ground damage and tail strikes. Among the fatal US crashes in 2025 was the collision on Jan. 29 of American Airlines Flight 5342 with a military helicopter in Washington DC, which killed 67.