Have Recent Crashes Shaken Your Confidence In Flying? [Survey]

A string of five high-profile aviation disasters in less than a month — including a deadly mid-air collision between a passenger jet and helicopter and last weekend’s spectacular crash-and-roll landing of a commercial airliner in Toronto — could be shaking Americans’ confidence in flying, according to a recent poll.

How are you feeling about boarding your next flight?

We’re surveying Patch readers, but before we get to the survey, found at the end of this article, here’s a look at where things stand:

Firings And Crashes Unrelated

The rapid succession of plane crashes and the firing of federal aviation workers are unrelated events, investigators’ reports show.

The Jan. 29 midair collision at Reagan National Airport between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 occurred before the firings were announced. The National Transportation Safety Board said on Feb. 14 that the pilot of the Blackhawk helicopter may not have heard key instructions from the air traffic control tower.

A second crash of a commercial aircraft, a Delta Air Lines jet out of Minneapolis crashed and rolled over on a Toronto runway on Feb. 16, isn’t under the purview of U.S. safety inspectors. Authorities in Canada have been careful to avoid talking about what went wrong when the plane touched down. Communications between the tower at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and the pilot were normal on approach on a clear day with normal operations before the crash. Investigators are focusing on whether the pilot’s actions, potential landing gear problems, or weather conditions caused the hard landing.

Investigations are continuing into the other three high-profile plane crashes, all of them involving small aircraft.

A medical jet crashed in a fiery explosion in northeast Philadelphia on Jan. 31, leaving seven dead and dozens of other people injured. Investigators said the pilot responded to the air traffic controller on takeoff, but did not respond to repeated calls after takeoff.

On Feb. 6, a commuter plane in Alaska quickly lost altitude and speed and plunged into the icy Bering Sea, killing 10. The plane was flying in an area where moderate icing was possible but had an anti-icing system that will be examined. The NTSB said it isn’t leaning toward any particular cause at this point.

A mid-air collision between two small planes over a regional airport in Tucson, Arizona, killed two people Wednesday morning. The Marana Regional Airport doesn’t have an air traffic control tower, according to the FAA. A crewed tower that was to have been operational by the end of 2024 won’t be in place until March because of supply chain and other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Arizona Republic reported.

‘Zero’ Safety Workers Fired

The crashes have occurred as the Trump administration lays off hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees. The firings are part of an aggressive program to eliminate thousands of federal jobs led by billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency, a Trump administration effort to slash federal spending.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA has a “staggering 45,000 employees” but only 400 of them — all probationary workers hired less than a year ago — were let go. That’s less than 1 percent of the FAA workforce.

“Zero air traffic controller and critical safety personnel were let go,” Duffy said.

The Union Says Differently

In the firings, 18 air traffic control facilities lost maintenance mechanics, employees who work on electronic issues and other building repairs at those facilities, according to David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Specialists Association, a union representing about 130 of the roughly 400 FAA staffers who were fired.

Spero told The Associated Press that work on critical infrastructure, including radar systems, could be affected because the certified technicians responsible for those systems may now have to absorb the maintenance mechanics’ responsibilities.

“All of these people are part of the safety net,” Spero said. “The more of them that are not there, the more difficult it becomes to do the actual safety oversight.”

Spero said cuts to nautical aviation specialists means it will take longer to update digital maps used by pilots will take longer. For airline safety inspections, aviation safety assistants “are like a paralegal to a lawyer,” Spero said. “They do the paperwork, so the inspector focuses on the airplane.”

Each of the 26 assistants cut would typically have supported 10 safety inspections at a time, he said. The added paperwork will likely fall to inspectors, increasing the time it takes to get an aircraft checked.

“They’re not going to be able to do as much oversight of those industries as they were doing before,” Spero said.

The same added workload will affect certified technicians, Philip Mann, a former FAA certified technician, told The AP.

“As short-staffed as air traffic controllers are, there are about three air traffic controllers for every technician,” Mann said.

Aviation Crashes Are Down

NTSB data shows aviation crashes in 2024 were at their lowest level in 10 years, with the exception of 2020 when travel was dramatically reduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its most recent safety report, IATA, the trade association of the world’s airlines, said 2023 was “an exceptionally safe year” with a total of 30 accidents in the commercial aviation sector.

There were no fatal accidents or hull losses among jet aircraft in 2023, resulting in a “record-low” fatality risk, the report said.

“On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident,” it said.

Editor’s note: This survey closed Feb. 25.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.