Increase in civil aviation fatalities seen globally in 2025

Last year, 418 people lost their lives in civil aviation accidents worldwide, according to figures released on Friday.

The figures from the Aviation Safety Network reported by the German Aviation Association (BDL) show that the victims included 352 passengers, 33 crew members and 33 people on the ground. In 2024, there were 334 fatalities following a dramatic increase.

Despite the short-term increase in the number of victims, the association notes that, in a long-term comparison, the number of accident victims in relation to the number of passengers continues to decline. The statistical probability of dying in a plane crash last year was 1 in 11,459,330. In the 1970s, the risk was much higher, at 1 in 264,000.

In individual years, more than 2,000 people lost their lives in plane crashes, despite much lower traffic volumes at the time.

According to forecasts by the UN aviation organization ICAO, around 4.7 billion passengers will be travelling by 2025 – more than ten times as many as in the 1970s, when the figure was around 440 million.

The statistics include accidents involving aircraft with a capacity of at least 14 seats. Data on accidents involving smaller aircraft was not initially available. Accidents involving military aircraft are also not included.

The most serious accident occurred on June 12 2025, when an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed immediately after take-off in Ahmedabad, India.

A total of 229 passengers and 12 crew members were killed, while one passenger miraculously survived. Nineteen bystanders were killed on the ground. Investigations into the cause of the sudden loss of thrust in both engines are continuing.