2024 aviation was a lot better than most people thought.

All data is from ASN (Aviation Safety Network)

Despite all of the news coverage, this was not even close to one of the worst years for aviation. According to the Aviation Safety Network, this year was actually better than 2022 (1555 fat vs. 1617). Aviation really is getting safer and safer every year, despite all of the incidents being reported by ever more converting news.

Now what was the worst year for aviation. First I looked at 1985, where there were 4500 deaths. But I quickly realized that you should be going back in time a bit, because even though there were a slew of incidents that year, there were still far less than the 70s. I checked 1973, which had 500 more fatalities. Now I checked every year since then, and the worst year for aviation is 1944. That year had 24000 fatalities, obviously because of WW2. WW1 did not have that many fatalities, as airplanes were new and did not come into war very often until the end of it. That only had 300 fatalities, but basically every crash resulted in a death. Thanks to the FAA, EASA, and more aviation organizations, along with aircraft makers and better pilot training, aviation is really as safe as could have been.