Emergency response vehicles stand ready near an upside down Delta Air Lines plane, which was heading from Minneapolis to Toronto when it crashed on the runway and flipped on its back at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto, Canada, on February 17, 2025. Photo: VCG

Americans are having a nervous time in the sky since the start of 2025 after a string of airplane accidents which have claimed dozens of lives in the past two months. 

The latest crash at Toronto Pearson Airport has heightened concerns about North American aviation safety, and will likely increase pressure on regulators and lawmakers to enhance protective measures for air travel in the US, said an article in Newsweek.

On Monday, a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis, US, crashed, turned upside down and caught fire on the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport while attempting to land Monday. All 80 people on board survived, but 21 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, Delta said in a statement, CNN reported, while describing Monday's crash as "the latest incident in a deadly year for air travel in North America." 

"We hit the ground, and we were sideways, and then we were upside down hanging like bats," passenger Pete Koukov told media. 

Earlier this month, 10 people were killed when a regional airline plane crashed in Alaska, according to CNN.

On February 1, a plane struck an aircraft tug vehicle at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, sending the 64-year-old driver to hospital with multiple injuries, NPR reported.

On January 31, a medical transport jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. The crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others, according to AP.

And on January 29, an American Airlines plane collided midair with a US Army helicopter near Washington, DC, killing all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. It was the country's deadliest aviation disaster since 2001, the AP said.

Recent high-profile airline accidents have caused a spike in Americans questioning just how safe it is to fly, according to Google Trends data, Axios reported. The only time more Americans were searching that question was during the pandemic, when there was confusion about how likely the virus was to spread on a plane.

Alan Diehl, a former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board who has also served as a safety adviser for the FAA and US Air Force, highlighted a shortage of air traffic control personnel but also told Newsweek that the FAA should reemphasize "aeronautical decision-making."

An internal preliminary investigation revealed that during the January 29 collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter, there was only one air traffic controller working both civilian and military flights in the notoriously busy airspace at the time of the collision, the Guardian reported.

Despite the series of deadly crashes, the Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the FAA, including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, the Guardian said. 

Job cuts at the FAA are likely to raise concerns. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) union has struggled to recruit air traffic controllers in recent years. An increase in recruitment during the previous two administrations was hobbled by budget cuts that limited training and certification, per the report.

The recent aviation accidents in the US highlight significant human factors and systemic challenges in the industry, Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"Post-pandemic recovery has placed immense pressure on the aviation sector in the US, leading to shortages of skilled personnel, such as air traffic controllers and pilots," Wang said. They have also exposed broader issues in aviation manufacturing, including supply chain instability and workforce shortages, Wang added.

Aviation industry expert and pilot Chen Jianguo said that during the pandemic, a significant number of senior pilots in the US retired either normally or early, leading to a severe shortage of personnel at American airlines. In recent years, these US airlines hired many new pilots, but their lack of experience may be one of the reasons for the frequent air accidents today, according to Shanghai Observer.