Air India crash pushes 2025 toward aviation’s deadliest year in past 10 years

Air India Flight 171's crash in 2025 has raised alarms in global aviation, contributing to over 460 fatalities so far this year.

The crash of Air India Flight 171 marked a tragic moment for global aviation in 2025, making it one of the deadliest years in recent memory. The Boeing 787, carrying 242 people, went down in a fiery explosion shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India, crashing into a densely populated residential area and raising fears of significant casualties on the ground.

The Air India Flight 171 crash in 2025 became one of the deadliest aviation disasters. Photographer: Siddharaj Solanki/Bloomberg(Bloomberg)

How 2025 is the deadliest year past decade?

So far in 2025, global civil aviation fatalities have surpassed 460, significantly exceeding the decade-long average of 284, according to Jan-Arwed Richter, founder of German aviation safety firm Jacdec. The sharp rise underscores growing concerns about flight safety in what is shaping up to be one of the most dangerous years for commercial air travel in recent history.

He said, “This year still has more than six months to go, so this could be concerning if this rate of fatal accidents would go on,” as reported by Bloomberg. 

After a record year in 2023 with no fatal commercial aviation crashes, the industry has faced a troubling reversal. A series of high-profile incidents in 2025 — including the deadly collision of American Airlines Flight 5342 with a military helicopter near Washington and a Delta Air Lines jet flipping on landing in Toronto — have reignited public concern about the safety of air travel, even in cases where there were no fatalities.

And now the most recent Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad has been recorded as the deadliest air disaster since the MH17 tragedy in 2017. One of the most devastating aviation tragedies in recent history was the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine, which claimed the lives of all 298 people on board, according to the Aviation Safety Network. 

Which years in past decade have been the deadliest?

According to Jadec’s data, in the past decade, the deadliest years for civil aviation were 2018 and 2015, each recording over 500 fatalities. The organization, which tracks aircraft with at least 19 seats or a weight of 5.7 tons, noted that while 2025 is shaping up to be among the most tragic in recent memory, many of the recent accidents remain under investigation. 

Ritcher emphasized that the numbers are still within historical norms and reminded the public that airplane crashes “happen mostly totally at random without a comparability to each other.”

He also urged the media not to jump to conclusions while investigators work to determine the cause of the Air India crash. “And I want to emphasize the bigger picture here,” Richter said. “Air travel is and remains the safest way of going from one place to another,” he added.