By Rob Wile—
NBC News
A tire detached in mid-flight.
A plane left the runway.
Multiple emergency landings.
Recent news may make it seem like aircraft incidents are becoming more common.
But experts say there is no cause for alarm, as the aviation industry's safety record remains better than ever, when you count the number of lives lost.
“There is no safety trend,” said John Cox, pilot, president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems LLC, regarding the series of airborne incidents reported in recent months and weeks.
In 2023,
only six fatal commercial aviation accidents were recorded worldwide
, resulting in 115 deaths, the lowest recorded in a year, according to the specialized aviation publication FlightGlobal.
Experts tell passengers there is no reason to be alarmed about air safety.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images file
Data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirms the downward trend: compared to the 27 serious accidents involving large American carriers in 2008, there were only 20 in 2022, the most recent year of the that figures are available.
The rate of accidents resulting in passenger injury or death or major damage on board an aircraft has also decreased: from 0.141 per 100,000 flight hours to 0.112 in 2022.
In other words, the data shows that flying is almost safer than ever.
“There is nothing unusual about the recent series of incidents – these types of things happen every day in the industry,” said Jeff Guzzetti, pilot and president of Guzzetti Aviation Risk Discovery LLC.
A series of incidents that worry passengers
However, the population is now especially attentive to these types of reports, especially following the incident that occurred in January on an Alaska Airlines flight with a Boeing 737 Max 9 that lost part of the fuselage in mid-flight.
Among the latest notable events: On Friday, a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 737-800 skidded off the runway in Houston while en route to its gate.
There were no injuries.
United noted that the plane was operating in rainy conditions at the time.
Also on Friday, a United Airlines plane headed to Mexico City from San Francisco made
an emergency landing in Los Angeles
after the crew reported a hydraulic problem.
None of the 110 people on board were injured, the airline reported.
On Thursday, a tire came off a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 that had just taken off from San Francisco, forcing an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport.
There were no injuries in that incident either.
Cox told The Associated Press that tire incidents are usually a maintenance issue and are not related to the manufacturer.
The airline said the plane, manufactured in 2002, was designed to land safely without the need for all tires.
On Monday, a United Airlines flight with a Boeing 737-900 going from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida, had to make an emergency landing
after flames began coming out of the engine.
United explained in a statement that it appears that the bubble wrap entered the airfield and was ingested by the aircraft's engine.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating these incidents.
The NTSB also revealed this week that it was looking into what happened during a February United flight on a Boeing 737 Max that had potentially defective rudder pedals.
United said in a statement that it is also investigating each of the incidents, although they all appear to be unique.
[Small plane crashes on a Tennessee interstate highway. Five people die]
“Each of these events is different and is not related to each other,” the airline said.
“Safety is our top priority, and we will continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe.”
Boeing also said it was assisting in investigations into the incidents.
Common cases
Experts said each incident is unique and may not be related to United or Boeing.
Even recognizing that these airlines are the ones involved in each of these events, Guzzetti commented that these cases are quite common in the normal course of flights.
“If we look at the overall picture, there has not been an increase in the number of incidents,” Guzzetti said.
“What happens is that there is a lot of scrutiny now because of the fuselage incident (on the Alaska Airlines flight), so the public is nervous and the media is picking up on all these things.”
Because consumers can use their phone cameras to immediately broadcast these mishaps via social media as soon as they happen, that makes the public more aware of them, even if their frequency hasn't really increased, Cox added.
Still, while experts say there is no reason to be alarmed, they acknowledge that a crucial part of the airline industry has changed in recent years, with aviation personnel now having, on average, less experience than previous generations of pilots. and maintenance personnel.
“I think it is a possibility that the lack of senior, qualified pilots and mechanics plays a role in the decline in aviation safety,” Guzzetti said.
“But it is difficult to quantify.
I don't think the decline is alarming, it can't be measured or even correlated.
But it is worthy of consideration.”
The blessing and challenges of new and more modernized aircraft
Another factor that could be at play is newer planes.
In fact, older aircraft were in some ways easier to handle because they were less technologically sophisticated, experts said.
But newer planes have more automated or computerized features that can make flying easier for the pilot, but are harder to manage when something goes wrong.
[Flying on American Airlines is now a little more expensive thanks to a baggage increase]
“The evolution of aircraft requires changes in pilot training, which focus not only on understanding an aircraft's systems but also on managing automation while keeping manual piloting skills sharp.” said Cox.
However, the reduction in the number of accidents
shows that, overall, these new aircraft have made flying safer.
Boeing and its line of 737 Max aircraft remain under investigation by the NTSB in the wake of the January incident.
Earlier this week, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy criticized Boeing for failing to provide information related to the 737 Max manufacturing process.
A day later, Boeing released the names of the 737 Max employees, according to Reuters.
The NTSB is also reported to hold a multi-day investigative hearing into the Max 9, likely in late summer.