US is on verge of slew of plane crashes as shutdown closes major airports and stretches safety to breaking point, experts warn

Air traffic control shortages have left America’s skies so fraught with danger that horrific plane crashes seem all-but-inevitable, experts have warned the Daily Mail.

An early sign of trouble came in the form of recent ground stop notices at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Boston Logan Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and both Fort Worth and Love Field airports in Dallas.

On Wednesday evening, Newark issued a six-and-a-half-hour ground stop that halts flights at their origin from taking off to the New Jersey travel hub, with delays for those hoping to leave the NYC-adjacent hub of up to 87 minutes.

Meanwhile, 4,400 flights were delayed on Thursday – with air traffic chaos spreading to Kelowna and Winnipeg airports in Canada. Those aren’t caused by the government shutdown – but Canada is facing its own separate shortage of controllers.

Additionally, Orlando International, Washington Reagan National and Dallas/Fort Worth had implemented Ground Delay Programs to limit the number of flights per hour arriving to the hubs.

Now, experts warn that the ongoing government shutdown risks triggering a safety spiral, as already short-staffed air traffic controllers call out sick after five weeks without a paycheck.

And those who are hanging on are more stretched than ever.

‘The shutdown increases both fatigue and stress – therefore, the likelihood of human error increases,’ Randy Klatt of the Foundation for Aviation Safety told the Daily Mail. ‘Near misses become more likely, as do disasters.’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (pictured) has warned that staffing levels at some air traffic control towers have dropped to 50 percent of what they should be

Air traffic controller and single dad Jack Criss (pictured) told CBS he has had to take on DoorDash shifts on top of his job to get by amid the shutdown

On Sunday morning, flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport (pictured) were halted due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility

As many employees take on second jobs and deal with the pressures of not being paid, staffing levels at some air traffic control towers have dropped to 50 percent of what they should be, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

‘My job is to keep the airspace safe. And so, if I don’t feel like I have enough controllers or enough controllers that are focused, we will slow down traffic, we will stop traffic,’ Duffy said in a press conference earlier this week.

Pleading with congress to end the shutdown, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Nick Daniels called the lack of pay a dangerous distraction to staff.

‘Every day that this shutdown drags on, the system becomes less safe,’ he warned during a press conference.

Fully-qualified air traffic controllers starting salaries range from $60,000 to $130,000, according to FlyingMag. Salaries max out at around $175,000, but air traffic controllers can earn more by doing overtime.

Jack Criss, an air traffic controller who has had to work DoorDash delivery shifts on top of his job to get by, has described the strain the shutdown has placed on him and his colleagues.

‘It is hard enough just going to work,’ Criss told CBS. ‘Now, when you add not getting paid, that’s when you just like multiply the level of pressure. And you know, air traffic is a safety sensitive position. The margin of error is zero.’

Speaking to the New York Post earlier this month, another air traffic controller said: ‘The financial anxiety doesn’t just hurt morale; it directly affects safety.

‘When someone responsible for thousands of lives a day is worrying about whether they can pay rent or feed their kids, focus suffers. Sometimes that small moment where your mind is elsewhere can have serious impacts.’

More than 14,000 controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not be paid until the shutdown ends, and the uncertainty of when that will be is weighing on many.

‘This certainly is a concern and is absolutely not ideal to have these kinds of stresses and worries while staff are being asked to show up for work,’ Dr Hassan Shahidi, the President and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, told the Daily Mail.

‘As this drags on and we get to the next paycheck not being paid, that is going to be heavily affecting these controllers.’

Despite the challenges they’re facing, the majority of air traffic controllers across the country have vowed to continue working to ensure Americans fly safely.

‘They are professionals, they are dedicated, and when they’re on the job, they’ll be doing their best in terms of performing that function and keeping keeping air traffic safe,’ Shahidi said.

But a fraction of workers are calling in sick, the transport secretary warned last week, claiming some ‘problem children’ are ‘lashing out’ at not being paid, causing further disruption.

The FAA has been closely monitoring staffing levels across the country. It slows down or even stops air traffic where there is not enough coverage.

Shahidi explained that in the event that staff levels are critically low, as was the case at Hollywood Burbank Airport earlier this month when its tower stood empty for hours, flights are delayed or larger facilities take on air traffic control responsibilities.

But, he said, such a situation is ‘very difficult to manage.’

While smaller airports are more affected by staff shortages, Shahidi added, things will get worse for major airports, too.

‘The large hubs in the US – Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami – are of course very important to the whole heartbeat of the entire aviation system. If any of these hubs have limited capacity, it will impact the whole country.

‘It’s a cascading effect, and that is going to be the inflection point that will really cause major disruption.’

Pictured: Travelers rest while waiting for their flights in Terminal B at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday

This appears to be happening already. On Sunday morning, flights departing for Los Angeles International were halted due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility.

On the same day, staffing shortages also caused takeoff and arrival disruptions at Newark and Teterboro Airport (also in New Jersey) and at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Meyers, according to the FAA.

In recent days, thousands of flights across the US have been snarled, with nearly 7,000 flights delayed on Monday and 8,800 on Sunday.

According to Duffy, 44 percent of delays on Sunday and 24 percent on Monday were caused by air traffic controller absences, compared to 5 percent on average before the shutdown.

With the worsening situation for air traffic controllers coinciding with Thanksgiving and the busiest travel period of the year, Shahidi told the Daily Mail he believes things are now coming to a head.

‘As we approach November, I would really hope that the administration and Congress can come to an agreement to lift a shutdown and get back to normal operations,’ he said.

Terrifying past incidents serve as a warning for what could happen if controllers lose focus or stop showing up.

In August 2023, a Southwest Airlines passenger plane and private jet came within 100ft of each other on the runway at San Diego International Airport, a recent safety report stated.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that both the controller managing the aircraft and their supervisor made ‘bad choices’ that diverted their attention from the landing procedure.

Disaster was only averted when the airport’s automated tracking system warned the controller and the private jet quickly circled before landing without incident.

Across the US in 2024, there were 1,474 recorded runway incursions – incidents ‘involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person’ on a runway – and 2023 had a total of 1,777, an average of five per day.

While plane crashes are exceptionally rare, high-profile incidents this year have shaken consumer confidence and highlighted the importance of aviation safety.

In January, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter smashed into an American Airlines jet over the Potomac river, killing 67 people

In January, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter smashed into an American Airlines jet over the Potomac river, killing 67 people. It was the deadliest US airline crash in more than two decades.

Then, in February, a Delta plane crash-landed and flipped over at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. All 80 people on board survived.

Neither of the crashes are believed to have been caused by air traffic control error and both are still being investigated.

Nevertheless, Klatt, a US Navy veteran, warns similar horrors could soon be on the horizon if air traffic control shortages continue.

In the four years before the Washington crash, the NTSB highlighted that there had been 15,214 ‘close proximity events’ between commercial airplanes and helicopters at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Most of these involved a lateral separation of less than one nautical mile and a vertical separation of less than 400ft, the NTSB said. But 85 had lateral separation of less than 1,500ft and vertical separation of under 200ft.

In February, a Delta plane crash-landed and flipped over (pictured) at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Incredibly, all 80 people on board survived

‘The FAA failed to act on any of those incidents and the tragic mid-air collision of January 29 occurred,’ Klatt told the Daily Mail. ‘Those types of incidents will no doubt increase with the shutdown. We can only hope there are no serious accidents.’

Even before the shutdown, ground staff and pilots raised concerns about stressors on the system, with many pointing to lack of air traffic control staff as a major concern.

According to the NATCA, the number of fully certified air traffic controllers is currently at a 30-year low.

Klatt is among those who blame the FAA, saying it has failed to properly staff air traffic control towers ‘for decades.’

‘Despite efforts to improve the situation, we are still significantly short of qualified ATCs,’ he told the Daily Mail, pointing to problems like the lengthy training process, the military turning out fewer certified controllers, the mandatory retirement age of 56, and a maximum application age of 30. ‘It’s a real mess that will take time to rectify.’

‘Prior to the shutdown, there were already concerns,’ Shahidi also said. ‘There are traffic controllers that are working six days a week, 10 hours a day on a regular basis.’

On top of that, efforts to modernize the system – which he described as ‘absolutely necessary to ensure an efficient, safer air traffic control system’ – have also been halted by the government paralysis.

‘We have an infrastructure that has been struggling in terms of the communications and navigation systems, and we’ve seen examples of that in different facilities around the country, affecting the efficiency and ability of those airports,’ Shahidi said.

While aircraft inspections are continuing, the shutdown also means that the FAA has stopped issuing Airworthiness Directives, which mandate safety fixes to existing aircraft, according to the NATCA.

The association said this is causing delays in maintenance and the updating of safety protocols, which is therefore putting crucial aviation technology at risk of falling behind or malfunctioning.

The shutdown is also impacting the training of future aviation safety workers, Dave Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, said in a press release.

The release said employees being trained at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma were forced to abandon their training and go home on October 3 as there was no funding available to keep them in their classes.

Spero warns this will impact staffing levels in the future, adding that fully training a technician can take three to five years.

‘Any lapse in training can push the clock back, as it did during the academy’s closure during the pandemic,’ he said.

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‘For every day the government is shut down and employees in the aviation ecosystem are still furloughed, another layer of safety may be peeled away.’

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday predicted air traffic “disaster” if the government shutdown stretches into November, as overworked and unpaid workers are pushed to the brink and more flights are delayed.

The dire warnings came after Vance and Duffy huddled at the White House with the CEO of United Airlines, Teamsters’ boss Sean O’Brien and former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who now reps the largest trade association for cargo and passenger airlines, to talk over the troubling travel forecast for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“It’ll be a disaster in aviation,” Duffy exclaimed. “October is a slower, air travel month, and we have great weather in October. And so you’ve seen minimal disruption because of good weather and slower travel.

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5 Vice President JD Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted “disaster” if the government shutdown stretches into November after a roundtable at the White House with airline industry and union leaders on Thursday. AP

“But as we go into November, travel picks up as people start to look at going to see their families, kids come home from college,” he added.

Unpaid air traffic controllers may be forced to leave work to find a second job to pay their bills “and you’re going to have mass issues throughout the airspace,” he said.

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“People will not be able to go from one place to the other because of a government shutdown. And I hope Democrats don’t take it to that point,” Duffy added, casting blame on Senate Democrats for refusing to provide the votes needed to reopen the government in full.

Vance added: “The House of Representatives has voted affirmatively to reopen the United States government. Fifty-two Republicans and three Democrats consistently vote to reopen the United States government. But we need 60 votes.”

5 “People will not be able to go from one place to the other because of a government shutdown. And I hope Democrats don’t take it to that point,” Duffy said. AP

“We need to end the craziness,” the vice president said.

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Senate Democrats have voted more than a dozen times against a House-passed stopgap measure to fund the government at current levels until Nov. 21, in an effort to force concessions on Affordable Care Act subsidies that they have said would lower health care premiums.

Republican leaders in Congress have agreed to hold a separate vote on those Obamacare subsidies after passing the so-called “clean” continuing resolution that would begin payments again for federal workers.

5 Still, “fewer than 2% of flights have been delayed so far because of air traffic control shortage,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said. AP

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has led the opposition to that bill, while Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine) have always voted with the GOP.

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“To their great credit, three moderate Democrats joined 52 Senate Republicans to vote to re-open the government,” Vance said. “We need five more reasonable Democrats to put the American people first and re-open the government.”

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby lamented how long the shutdown has lasted, which is close to surpassing the 35-day record set during Trump’s first administration.

“It’s been 30 days, and while I don’t have a position on which partisan side and how things should be settled with healthcare, it has been 30 days,” Kirby told reporters outside the White House.

5 Senate Democrats — led by Chuck Schumer — have voted more than a dozen times against a House-passed stopgap measure to fund the government at current levels until Nov. 21. AP

“Let’s get a clean CR and get that negotiation done behind closed doors, without the pressure, without putting the American workers and the American economy at risk,” Kirby added.

O’Brien noted that his union had endorsed the “clean CR” three weeks prior.

“Put the politics aside, get to the table, negotiate a deal, pass a clean CR right now and then figure out the problems moving forward,” he said.

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5 Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine) have always voted with the GOP to re-open the government. REUTERS

Kirby thanked Duffy, air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration for “working hard” — without pay — amid the shutdown.

“They are keeping the skies safe. They’ve minimized delays — fewer than 2% of flights have been delayed so far because of air traffic control shortage,” he said.

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“So they’ve done a great job. But it’s putting stress on people. It’s not fair to those people. It’s also putting stress on the economy.”

But even some senators have now been affected by the flight delays as they prepare to leave town for the weekend, with the FAA attributing the snarls at DCA Reagan airport to staffing shortages.

Flight delays continued at U.S. airports Sunday amid air traffic controller shortages as the government shutdown entered its second month, with Newark airport in New Jersey experiencing delays of two to three hours.

New York City’s Emergency Management office said on X that Newark delays often ripple out to the region’s other airports.

Travelers flying to, from or through New York “should expect schedule changes, gate holds, and missed connections. Anyone flying today should check flight status before heading to the airport and expect longer waits,” the social media post added.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago O’Hare were also seeing dozens of delays and one or two cancellations, along with major airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Miami, according to FlightAware.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.

“We work overtime to make sure the system is safe. And we will slow traffic down, you’ll see delays, we’ll have flights canceled to make sure the system is safe,” Duffy said Sunday on CBS’S “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

He also said he does not plan to fire air traffic controllers who don’t show up for work.

“Again when they’re making decisions to feed their families, I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. “They need support, they need money, they need a paycheck. They don’t need to be fired.”

Earlier in October, Duffy had warned air traffic controllers who had called in sick instead of working without a paycheck during the shutdown risked being fired. Even a small number of controllers not showing up for work is causing problems because the FAA has a critical shortage of them.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday on X that nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks.

Staffing shortages can occur both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports for the month of October despite isolated staffing problems throughout the month.

Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a long-standing shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.

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Flight delays and cancellations are surging around the country as a result of staff shortages in airports as the government shutdown stretches on, causing thousands of air traffic controllers to work without pay.

Roughly 11,000 air traffic controllers missed paychecks amounting to two weeks of compensation on Tuesday, marking the first time they’ve gone entirely unpaid since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. Controllers, who have been deemed essential employees during the shutdown, are required to continue working even without wages. “Many of our controllers can make it without this first paycheck. They’ve been in the job 10, 15, 20 years; they’ve planned for days like this,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday. He acknowledged, however, that “almost every controller can’t make it two paychecks.” Read more: How Long Will the Trump Administration Be Able to Pay the Troops Amid the Shutdown?

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Duffy insisted flying remains safe.”Oftentimes I’m asked, is the airspace safe? Is it safe to fly? And I will tell you that, yes, it is as safe today as it was two months ago. It’s safe,” he said. But he warned that there will likely be more delays if the shutdown continues. Thousands of flights traveling within the U.S. are already suffering delays each day. There were over 2,700 delays impacting flights within, into or out of the U.S. on Wednesday as of late afternoon on the East Coast, with more than 125 being cancelled. On Sunday, there were nearly 9,000 delays, and 193 cancellations. Flights leaving Los Angeles International Airport were stopped briefly that day due to staff shortages at a Southern California air traffic facility, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Out of 25 controllers, 11 called in sick, Duffy said. Delays due to staffing were also reported in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New Jersey.

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Of all the flight delays on Sunday, 44% were due to air traffic controller staffing shortages, according to Duffy; on Monday, the share was 25%. That’s a significant jump from prior months: So far this year, only 5% of delays were due to air traffic controllers. Air traffic controllers received a partial paycheck on Oct. 14 for work performed before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, before receiving $0 paychecks on Tuesday. Hundreds have resorted to seeking additional work to make ends meet as they go without pay during the shutdown, like waiting tables or doing gig work for companies such as DoorDash and Uber. Controllers have also increasingly called in sick in recent weeks, Duffy said in a Sunday interview on Fox News, which he said has led to thousands of flight delays and hundreds more cancellations. Read more: ‘A Man-Made Disaster’: Food Banks and Experts Issue Grave Warning as SNAP Benefits Set to Run Out Amid Government Shutdown

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“They should never work a side job, that they should never get off a night shift and then go wait tables,” said Nick Daniels, president of National Air Traffic Controllers Association, at the news conference.

“America’s air traffic controllers are now having to focus on how they put gas in the car, how do they take care of their children, how do they pay for child care,” Daniels said. “That makes the system less safe.”

Roughly 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees also missed their first paycheck on Tuesday, and are also required to keep working. Both TSA workers and air traffic controllers are among the federal workers considered essential for their role in maintaining public safety, along with certain military and law enforcement personnel, among others.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been forced to issue a ground stop at Newark airport over a staffing shortage caused by the government shutdown.

The advisory issued at 3.32pm ET says that the ground delay program – which halts flights at their origin – will be in effect until at least 10.59pm.

The maximum delay is 87 minutes and the average is 40 minutes, according to the FAA, with the cause listed as ‘staffing.’

The government shutdown means that 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA officers aren’t being paid, causing huge increases in sick days and absences.

ATC workers and TSA agents are considered essential, required to work despite not receiving paychecks. During shutdowns, absenteeism rises as many struggle to afford gas and childcare.

Experts warn the staffing shortages risk triggering a safety spiral as fatigue and stress are increased.

The crisis is deepening as the shutdown enters its 29th day, the second-longest in history and closing in on the 35-day record.

More than 3,000 flights were beset by delays around the nation today, with around 150 cancellations, as the impasse between Republicans and Democrats raged on.

United Airlines planes are seen at the tarmac at Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., May 7

Newark is among the worst offenders. The nation’s eighth busiest airport has suffered from staffing and technology challenges since well before the shutdown.

Traders on online prediction markets like Kalshi are betting the government shutdown will last 47 days — just short of the Thanksgiving travel rush.

Flight delays soared to 8,600 on Sunday, with around 44 percent attributed to ATC staffing issues — compared to the usual 5 percent.

The scandal continued on Monday as nearly 7,000 flights were delayed — well above the 5,000-flight average.

‘The shutdown increases both fatigue and stress – therefore, the likelihood of human error increases,’ Randy Klatt of the Foundation for Aviation Safety told the Daily Mail. ‘Near misses become more likely, as do disasters.’

As many employees take on second jobs and deal with the pressures of not being paid, staffing levels at some air traffic control towers have dropped to 50 percent of what they should be, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

‘My job is to keep the airspace safe. And so, if I don’t feel like I have enough controllers or enough controllers that are focused, we will slow down traffic, we will stop traffic,’ Duffy said in a press conference earlier this week.

Pleading with congress to end the shutdown, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Nick Daniels called the lack of pay a dangerous distraction to staff.

Air traffic controller and single dad Jack Criss (pictured) told CBS he has had to take on DoorDash shifts on top of his job to get by amid the shutdown

Pictured: Travelers rest while waiting for their flights in Terminal B at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (pictured) has warned that staffing levels at some air traffic control towers have dropped to 50 percent of what they should be

‘Every day that this shutdown drags on, the system becomes less safe,’ he warned during a press conference.

Fully-qualified air traffic controllers starting salaries range from $60,000 to $130,000, according to FlyingMag. Salaries max out at around $175,000, but air traffic controllers can earn more by doing overtime.

Jack Criss, an air traffic controller who has had to work DoorDash delivery shifts on top of his job to get by, has described the strain the shutdown has placed on him and his colleagues.

‘It is hard enough just going to work,’ Criss told CBS. ‘Now, when you add not getting paid, that’s when you just like multiply the level of pressure. And you know, air traffic is a safety sensitive position. The margin of error is zero.’

Speaking to the New York Post earlier this month, another air traffic controller said: ‘The financial anxiety doesn’t just hurt morale; it directly affects safety.

‘When someone responsible for thousands of lives a day is worrying about whether they can pay rent or feed their kids, focus suffers. Sometimes that small moment where your mind is elsewhere can have serious impacts.’

The Trump administration has warned flight disruptions will increase as controllers missed their first full paycheck on Tuesday.

The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, raising pressure on lawmakers to resolve the standoff.

Duffy was in Cleveland meeting with controllers on Monday, while the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union held events at numerous airports on Tuesday to highlight the first missed paycheck.

During an appearance on the Fox News program ‘Sunday Morning Futures,’ Duffy said more controllers were calling in sick as money worries compound the stress of an already challenging job.

‘Just yesterday, … we had 22 staffing triggers. That’s one of the highest that we have seen in the system since the shutdown began. And that’s a sign that the controllers are wearing thin,’ he said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that ATC workers are ‘forced’ to take on second jobs like ‘driving for Uber’ in order to ‘make ends meet’.

In January, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter smashed into an American Airlines jet over the Potomac river, killing 67 people

In February, a Delta plane crash-landed and flipped over (pictured) at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Incredibly, all 80 people on board survived

‘With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, we are nearing the busiest travel period of the entire year, when millions of Americans will go to airports to spend time with their loved ones,’ Leavitt said on Thursday.

‘If the Democrats continue to keep the government closed we fear there will be significant flight delays, disruptions and cancellations in major airports across the country this holiday season.’

The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day workweeks even before the shutdown.

In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paychecks, extending wait times at some airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York and Washington.

Terrifying past incidents serve as a warning for what could happen if controllers lose focus or stop showing up.

In August 2023, a Southwest Airlines passenger plane and private jet came within 100ft of each other on the runway at San Diego International Airport, a recent safety report stated.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that both the controller managing the aircraft and their supervisor made ‘bad choices’ that diverted their attention from the landing procedure.

Disaster was only averted when the airport’s automated tracking system warned the controller and the private jet quickly circled before landing without incident.

Across the US in 2024, there were 1,474 recorded runway incursions – incidents ‘involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person’ on a runway – and 2023 had a total of 1,777, an average of five per day.

While plane crashes are exceptionally rare, high-profile incidents this year have shaken consumer confidence and highlighted the importance of aviation safety.

In January, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter smashed into an American Airlines jet over the Potomac river, killing 67 people. It was the deadliest US airline crash in more than two decades.

Then, in February, a Delta plane crash-landed and flipped over at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. All 80 people on board survived.

Neither of the crashes are believed to have been caused by air traffic control error and both are still being investigated.