Which Airline Has the Most Crashes? The Truth Behind the Numbers 

American Airlines holds the highest raw crash count since 1970 (28 accidents), but raw counts are misleading. When measured by accident rate per million flights the only fair comparison Africa-based carriers lead with 7.86 accidents per million flights, while North Asian carriers record the lowest global rate at just 0.16, according to IATA’s 2025 Annual Safety Report.

Headlines about plane crashes tend to spike fear in ways that statistics rarely justify. A collision here, a fire there, a dramatic runway excursion in Toronto and suddenly the internet is full of people Googling whether flying is safe. The truth? Commercial aviation has never been safer. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), there were just 51 accidents across 38.7 million flights in 2025 a rate of 1.32 per million flights.

But that doesn’t mean all airlines carry equal risk. Historical data, fleet age, regulatory oversight, and maintenance standards vary enormously across carriers and regions. Some airlines have accumulated troubling safety records. Others have transformed themselves from high-risk to world-class operations. Understanding the difference matters.

This post cuts through the noise using rate-adjusted data, not misleading raw counts to identify which airlines have the most crashes, why raw numbers can be deceptive, and which carriers consistently top global safety rankings.

Why Raw Crash Counts Can Be Misleading

Raw crash counts without flight volume context tell you almost nothing useful. An airline that operates 5,000 flights per day will naturally accumulate more incidents over decades than one operating 200 flights per day. Comparing them using total accident counts is like comparing road safety records between New York City and a small rural town purely by total crash numbers.

The right metric is accidents per million flights (or hull losses per million departures). This adjusts for fleet size and operational volume, giving a fair picture of actual risk per trip.

A key distinction that competitors frequently miss:

The IATA 2025 Safety Report the most comprehensive publicly available dataset uses accidents per million flights as its primary measure. IATA member airlines recorded just 0.72 accidents per million flights in 2025, compared to 3.09 for non-IATA members. Airlines certified under the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program recorded 0.98 accidents per million flights, versus 2.55 for non-IOSA carriers. Certification matters far more than carrier nationality.

What Factors Contribute Most to Airline Crashes?

According to data from the NTSB and ICAO, crashes rarely have a single cause. The most common contributing factors are:

• Human error: Up to 80% of aviation accidents involve human factors, including pilot error (53%), poor crew resource management, and fatigue
• Mechanical failure: Responsible for roughly 21% of accidents, with older fleets (25+ years) carrying higher risk
• Weather conditions: Accounts for approximately 11% of incidents; particularly relevant in mountainous regions like Nepal and Colombia
• Regulatory oversight failures: Weak civil aviation authorities correlate strongly with higher accident rates in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa
• Maintenance lapses: Cited in multiple high-profile crashes involving Pakistan International Airlines and Nepal Airlines

Landing and takeoff remain the most dangerous phases of flight. Nearly half of all aviation crashes over the four-decade period analyzed by Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP occurred during these two phases.

What Are the Top 10 Airlines With the Most Crashes (Historical)?

Based on Aviation Safety Network data since 1970, the following airlines have the highest total accident counts. These are raw counts context on flight volume is provided alongside each entry.

Critical caveat: American Airlines appears at the top of this list largely because it operates one of the largest fleets in history. Adjusted for flight volume, major US carriers including American rank among the safest airlines on Earth.

Which Airline Has Had the Most Crashes in the Last 10 Years?

Over the past decade (2015–2025), no single major carrier dominates crash statistics in rate-adjusted terms. However, several airlines with notable incidents stand out:

• Air India recorded the first-ever fatal crash of a Boeing 787 in June 2025 (Flight 171, 241 deaths)
• Pakistan International Airlines suffered a major crash in 2020 (Flight 8303, 97 deaths) amid a widespread pilot licensing scandal
• Jeju Air experienced South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster in December 2024 (Flight 2216, 179 deaths)
• PSA Airlines (American Eagle) was involved in the Potomac River collision in January 2025 (64 deaths)

Regional turboprop operators in Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia account for a disproportionate share of fatal accidents in the last decade relative to their operational size.

Which Airline Has the Most Crashes in America?

American Airlines has the highest raw crash count among US carriers since 1970 (28 accidents). However, this figure reflects its status as a historically high-volume operator not a disproportionate safety risk per flight.

When evaluated by AirlineRatings.com’s 2026 safety rankings, which weight incident rates per flight, pilot training, audit certifications, and fleet age, US airlines perform well globally:

IATA’s 2025 report notes that North America recorded 16 accidents in 2025 an all-accident rate of 1.68 per million flights, slightly above the region’s five-year average of 1.33. The two accidents that drove most US fatality statistics were the January 2025 Potomac River collision (64 deaths) and the June 2025 Air India crash in Ahmedabad (which, while an Indian carrier, involved a major air route into a UK airport impacting global aviation monitoring).

Which Airline Has the Most Crashes in 2026?

No single major scheduled airline dominates the 2026 incident record so far. Notable accidents in 2026 include:

• January 2026: Indonesian Air Transport ATR 42 crash in Sulawesi (10 killed); SATENA Flight 8849 crash in Colombia (15 killed)
• February 2026: Agape Flights cargo Embraer crash (2 killed)
• March 2026: Air Canada Express Flight 8646 (CRJ-900) collided with a fire truck on landing at LaGuardia Airport, killing both pilots the first fatal crash involving a CRJ-900 aircraft
• July 2026: K2 Airways Boeing 737 vanished off the coast of Pakistan

Most 2026 incidents involve regional and charter operators, consistent with the global trend of major scheduled carriers maintaining strong safety records.

What Are the Most Unsafe Airlines in the World?

“Most unsafe” is best measured by accident rate per million flights, not raw counts. According to IATA’s 2025 Annual Safety Report:

Africa’s all-accident rate of 7.86 per million flights nearly six times the global average of 1.32 reflects systemic challenges: 71% of accidents in the region involved turboprop aircraft, and Africa accounted for the majority of poorly categorized or underreported incidents globally. Airlines operating under weak national civil aviation authorities (and therefore excluded from IOSA audits) carry materially higher risk.

Airlines that have faced EU or FAA operational bans or restrictions over safety concerns have historically included Pakistan International Airlines, Nepal Airlines, and multiple African carriers. PIA was reinstated by the EU after reforms, but its long-term safety culture remains a subject of scrutiny.

What Airline Has Had the Worst Crashes?

The worst crashes in aviation history by death toll involved:

• Tenerife disaster (1977): 583 deaths KLM and Pan Am 747s collided on the runway; the deadliest aviation accident ever recorded
• Japan Airlines Flight 123 (1985): 520 deaths the deadliest single-aircraft crash in history; structural failure caused by improper repair
• Air India Flight 182 (1985): 329 deaths a bombing; not a crash in the conventional mechanical sense
• Air India Flight 171 (June 2025): 241 deaths first fatal crash of a Boeing 787; cause under investigation
• Jeju Air Flight 2216 (December 2024): 179 deaths deadliest aviation disaster in South Korean history; Boeing 737-800 struck an embankment on landing

The severity of a crash is shaped by runway conditions, aircraft type, phase of flight, and emergency response speed not solely airline fault. The 2024 Jeju Air crash, for example, raised questions about runway end infrastructure in addition to aircraft factors.

Which Airlines Are the Safest in the World in 2026?

The world’s safest full-service airline in 2026 is Etihad Airways, according to AirlineRatings.com’s annual ranking of 320 carriers the first time a Gulf carrier has taken the top spot. Etihad earned the ranking through the lowest incident rate per flight on the list, a young fleet, zero fatal crash history, and exceptional turbulence management protocols.

Top 10 safest full-service airlines for 2026 (AirlineRatings.com):

1. Etihad
2. Cathay Pacific
3. Qantas
4. Qatar Airways
5. Emirates
6. Air New Zealand
7. Singapore Airlines
8. EVA Air
9. Virgin Australia
10. Korean Air

Safest low-cost airlines for 2026:

1. HK Express
2. Jetstar Australia
3. Scoot
4. FlyDubai
5. easyJet Group
6. Southwest Airlines
7. airBaltic

AirlineRatings.com CEO Sharon Petersen noted that just 1.3 points separated positions one through six on the full-service list a reflection of how competitive elite aviation safety has become. Every airline in the top 25 has recorded some form of incident in the past two years, but the rate per flight across all of them sits between 0.002 and 0.09.

Which US Airline Is the Safest?

Alaska Airlines ranks as the safest US full-service carrier in 2026, placing 15th globally on AirlineRatings.com’s list. AirlineRatings.com specifically highlighted that no lives were lost during Alaska’s 2024 door plug failure on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 attributing the outcome to strong operational discipline and crew performance. Southwest Airlines holds the top US position among low-cost carriers, ranked 6th globally in its category.

Which Airline Is Not Considered Safe?

Airlines operating outside of IATA membership and IOSA certification frameworks carry significantly higher risk. IATA data shows non-IATA member airlines recorded 3.09 accidents per million flights in 2025 more than four times the 0.72 rate of IATA member carriers.

Specific warning signs that an airline may not meet international safety standards:

• Absent from the IATA IOSA registry
• Banned from EU or FAA airspace
• Fleet average age above 20 years
• Operating in regions with low ICAO audit compliance rates (particularly Sub-Saharan Africa)
• No public safety audit transparency

Airlines like Nepal Airlines and those operating under governments with poor Annex 13 investigation compliance (Africa had a completion rate of just 19% for required accident investigation reports, according to IATA’s 2025 data) present elevated concern.

How Does Aviation Continuously Improve Safety?

Commercial aviation’s long-run safety trajectory is one of the most remarkable engineering success stories of the 20th and 21st centuries. A decade ago, the fatal accident rate stood at one fatal accident for every 3.5 million flights (2012–2016). By 2025, that figure had improved to one fatal accident for every 5.6 million flights (2021–2025).

Improvements stem from:

• Mandatory black box data review after every serious incident
• IOSA audits requiring standardized safety processes across member airlines
• AI-assisted maintenance predictive systems catching component failure early
• No loss-of-control-in-flight (LOC-I) accidents in 2025 the second time this has been achieved globally, and significant given LOC-I is historically a leading cause of fatalities
• GNSS interference monitoring, as GPS jamming incidents rose 67% in 2025 vs. 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

What airline has the most crashes in history by raw count?
American Airlines has the highest raw accident count since 1970 at 28 recorded accidents, according to Aviation Safety Network data. However, adjusted for flight volume, American Airlines has a low accident rate relative to its operational size and is ranked among the top 25 safest airlines globally by AirlineRatings.com in 2026.

What is the global commercial aviation accident rate in 2025?
According to IATA’s 2025 Annual Safety Report, the global all-accident rate was 1.32 per million flights one accident for every 759,646 flights. This was an improvement over the 1.42 rate recorded in 2024.

Which region has the highest aviation accident rate in the world?
Africa recorded the highest regional accident rate in 2025 at 7.86 accidents per million flights, according to IATA. This is nearly six times the global average and is driven primarily by turboprop operations, weak regulatory oversight, and poor accident reporting compliance.

Which airline has the lowest accident rate in the world?
North Asian carriers recorded the lowest regional accident rate globally in 2025 at just 0.16 accidents per million flights (IATA, 2026). At the individual airline level, Etihad Airways holds the lowest incident rate per flight among airlines rated by AirlineRatings.com in 2026.

What was the deadliest airline crash in 2025?
Air India Flight 171 was the deadliest crash of 2025, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard after the Boeing 787-8 crashed into a medical college building shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in June 2025. It was the first fatal crash and total loss of a Boeing 787 aircraft.

Are IOSA-certified airlines significantly safer than non-certified ones?
Yes. IOSA-certified airlines recorded an all-accident rate of 0.98 per million flights in 2025, compared to 2.55 for non-IOSA carriers a 2.6x difference. All IATA member airlines capable of IOSA certification are required to maintain it (IATA, 2025 Annual Safety Report).

Is Pakistan International Airlines still considered unsafe?
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has a troubled safety history, including the 2020 Flight 8303 crash (97 deaths) and a subsequent pilot licensing scandal. PIA was reinstated to EU airspace after reforms, but it does not feature on AirlineRatings.com’s 2026 safety rankings and continues to face scrutiny from international aviation bodies.

Which US airline has had the fewest fatal accidents in recent history?
Alaska Airlines ranks 15th globally on AirlineRatings.com’s 2026 list the highest-ranked US full-service carrier. The airline’s handling of the January 2024 Boeing 737 MAX 9 door plug blowout, in which no lives were lost, was specifically cited as evidence of strong safety culture and crew performance.

How do hull loss rates differ from accident rates in aviation safety data?
IATA replaced hull loss jet and turboprop rates with jet and turboprop accident rates from 2025 onward, noting that some aircraft were not repaired for economic rather than safety reasons making hull loss an unreliable proxy for accident severity. Accident rates capture a broader, more consistent picture of safety performance.

What is the safest low-cost airline in the world for 2026?
HK Express holds the top spot among low-cost carriers on AirlineRatings.com’s 2026 list for the second consecutive year. The airline operates one of the lowest incident rates in the analysis, maintains a modern fleet, and demonstrated the highest consistency in cabin crew safety checks across AirlineRatings.com’s independent onboard audits.