2024 has been a nerve-wracking year for plane travel. How safe is it really?

Anxious airline flyers may well remember 2024 as the year their worst fears about the safety of air travel felt confirmed, as a series of unprecedented, and in some cases fatal, airplane incidents captured headlines.

Anxious airline flyers may well remember 2024 as the year their worst fears about the safety of air travel felt confirmed, as a series of unprecedented, and in some cases fatal, airplane incidents captured headlines. Three separate incidents last week — aboard South Korean, Canadian and Azerbaijani airliners — have stirred those anxieties during the busy holiday travel period. But statistics show the risk of death or injury on a commercial flight is extremely low. The latest incident happened Sunday in South Korea when a Boeing passenger jet crash-landed at Muan International Airport, killing 179 people — the deadliest aviation disaster in the country since 1997. In footage broadcast by multiple South Korean news outlets, the Jeju Air flight can be seen skidding on its belly at high speed, hitting an embankment and erupting in a fireball. It’s still unclear what caused the crash, though experts told CNN the plane’s undercarriage — specifically, the wheels used for takeoff and landing — appeared not to have fully deployed before hitting the tarmac. South Korean authorities are probing the cause of the disaster with the help of investigators from the United States. In a Sunday statement on X, Boeing extended its “deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones” and said it was ready to support Jeju Air. The crash came after 38 people were killed on Christmas Day when an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace in Grozny, Chechnya. It is unconfirmed what was behind the incident, but Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of accidentally shooting down the airliner.