this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Summary

A new AP-NORC poll shows that Americans’ confidence in air travel has declined after several fatal plane crashes in 2025.

Only 64% now believe flying is safe, down from 71% last year, while the number of those who feel it is unsafe rose by 12%.

Confidence in pilots, air traffic controllers, and the federal government has also dropped. Recent crashes, including a deadly collision over Washington, D.C., have fueled public concern.

Meanwhile, Trump has begun firing hundreds of FAA employees, raising further safety worries.

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[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 12 points 11 hours ago

I'm not flying anywhere while the orange turd is in office. Fuck it, less money for the economy I guess. U wanna fire air traffic controllers while there is an active shortage? Planes crashing left and right ever since. Hard pass.

[–] Tezzerets_Tea_Time@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago

So weird that it's only fallen 7% considering before January 2025 we hadn't had a fatal plane crash in almost 16 years, and now we've had multiple in a month.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 28 points 19 hours ago

Added with Trump firing faa employees

[–] LucidNightmare@lemm.ee 22 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Just getting us peasants prepared to not have air travel available to us.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

This is funny to me because the amount of commerce in the U.S. that is dependent on reliable air travel for average Americans is massive. If people stop flying the economy is going to be what ends up in freefall.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

I'm not flying until this gets sorted out. The fact that we elected a fucking Russian saboteur twice is just incomprehensible. NPVIC might save us in the nick of time, but I doubt it.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I really don’t think we hold any industry to the superhuman standards we hold aviation to.

The only other industry that individuals entrust their lives to in large numbers that I can think of is the medical industry, and that kills around 100k people a year, yet people don’t quit seeking treatment en masse (problems with US medical system access and affordability aside).

Pilots are tested at least yearly with simulators dealing with emergencies of all sorts, from fires to engine failures, education and reviews of aircraft systems and aviation regulations, along with medical examinations and random drug testing to continually check fitness for flight. Cabin crew also see yearly testing dealing with emergencies, medical or things like fires in the cabin, evacuations, along with training on how to deal with passengers who may be drunk or a threat in some way.

The best time to fly is after incidents. Everyone is on high alert, training departments and unions remind crews to take extra care in their duties, all crews are aware of extra scrutiny.

[–] booly@sh.itjust.works 5 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You're mostly right, but your comment also assumes independent probabilities rather than correlated probabilities of danger. Sometimes multiple crashes can trace back to the same cause: one particular manufacturing defect on a model of aircraft sold thousands of times, one bad practice on air traffic control procedure, one bad actor targeting multiple aircraft, etc.

Purely hypothetically, as an example, if it turned out that there was a terrorist group targeting aircraft via anti aircraft missiles, then that group's success at bringing down an airliner would actually worsen the odds of passengers on other aircraft, at least until we receive external information that the threat has passed.

[–] TehWorld@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

One bad actor causing chaos amongst the staff entrusted with keeping airlines safe….

[–] booly@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly. Some of the fears that people have are about factors that affect all flights, not just the risk of a single pilot operating a single aircraft.

Flying is still safe and has a strong safety culture built into the industry independent of government regulation, that wouldn't change overnight even if the government regulators change. But removing a slice of Swiss cheese is still bad, and cause for concern.

[–] TehWorld@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Also, Boeing notwithstanding…

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 9 points 17 hours ago

The best time to fly is after incidents.

That used to be good advice. The best time to fly now is before planes started falling out of the sky.

[–] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 12 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Reminds me of that guy who deliberately books vacations to places that have just suffered terrorist attacks. Cheap as fuck and super safe since there are security forces everywhere. Not sure I agree with the practice, but can't really fault the logic.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago

Yep, that's pretty similar. Might be a good travel idea, but one would have to take care regarding any issue that the locals might have with foreigners after tragedies in their communities.

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[–] thingAmaBob@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I just wish traveling were a more pleasant experience in general. I gotta take an extra day off after coming back home because modes of travel in USA are so exhausting.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, it's pretty horrible you have to fly first class to lay back any substantial amount. Even business class just gives you more ass room. I also wish they would run the cabins at a bit higher pressure. I can never seem to get used to that 10,000ft standard.

I should probably move to Colorado for a couple months, I hear once you get conditioned to altitude you don't have problems with it anymore

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[–] dan@upvote.au 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (3 children)

Flying is still the safest form of transport.

There's 1.17 deaths and 42 injuries per 100 million miles travelled by car in the USA. In comparison, there's only 0.007 injuries per 100 million miles flown in commercial planes in the USA. Even trains are more dangerous at 0.1 injuries per 100 million miles.

You're far, far more likely to be in a car crash on your way to the airport compared to being involved in a plane crash.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 30 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

These stats reflect years of institutional intervention from the FAA and NTSB. With alterations to those regulators its unlikely these stats will continue to be relevant.

[–] dan@upvote.au 6 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Even if flying gets a bit less safe, there would have to be far, far more plane crashes (at least three orders of magnitude more) for it to become anywhere near as dangerous as driving.

[–] Suburbanl3g3nd@lemmings.world 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It also ignores how hard it is to be a pilot or a train conductor vs driving a car around town. Got an easy to obtain license and some cash and you're golden. Try to do that with a plane or train. Takes some serious education in comparison

[–] dan@upvote.au 2 points 15 hours ago

This is a reason why people should feel safer taking a plane or train, which is my point.

[–] Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You spitting some real pre-2025 numbers unless the only car you're including is a cyber truck

[–] dan@upvote.au 2 points 15 hours ago

Of course they're pre 2025... It's only February so there's no full year stats for 2025 yet.

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago

Dying in a car crash takes so many forms. Instantly crushed by a truck? Or die slowly in the hospital?

But i imagine dying in an airplane almost always involves 20mins of sheer terror as you plummet towards the earth knowing that you will die, or if you might survive and be floating in the ocean for days.

[–] WhyFlip@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I fly Sunday. I'm not worried.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 24 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The odds are still greatly in your favor, there's little to worry about.

That said, the odds are now drastically worse than they were prior.

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

It'd still be a higher probability to die in the car taking them to the airport.

[–] kablammy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Well you wouldn't be driving to the airport if you didn't have a flight to catch! ** taps forehead

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 18 hours ago

Indeed, but if we keep accelerating at this pace for a couple of years...

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

They should have the crash chance on the departures/arrivals screen.... Ohio... 7:56am on time 67%. On boarding, Sanf Francisco 4:25pm delayed 75%.

[–] ArchRecord@lemm.ee 53 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Quick everyone, start talking about high speed rail!

Maybe we have the slightest shot of actually building out, y'know, cheap, fast, effective mass transit for once?

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

President Musk will never allow it.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Be prepared for cars in tunnels! And poorly functioning cars at snail pace, if that!

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not as long as the cargo railroad companies hold all the power. America needs an alternate timeline with no fascism, sane governance, and making all railroads public.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 6 points 23 hours ago

You wouldn't build high speed rail on cargo lines, anyway. New rail corridors need to be established. The LA-Vegas line is being built along an existing interstate, which solves a lot of right-of-way and land usage issues. That's what you want to do.

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[–] stopdropandprole@lemmy.world 85 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

most people aren't aware that Air Traffic Controllers are forced to retire at 55. no old, slow reaction employees allowed.

when Reagan fired thousands of ATCs in the 80s, then hired and trained all new scabs, he inadvertently created an enormous cohort who would all be retiring at around the same time due to forced retirement.

fast forward to today,

  • thousands of ATCs were aging out and being replaced with less experienced people (less of a prob now than 10ish yrs ago but still staffing is extremely lean due to Reagan)
  • add to that the obsolete legacy tracking tech
  • add to that cost saving (corner cutting) by aerospace corps like Boeing
  • add to that major dysfunction in pilot training, screening out baddies, inexperienced pilots, and dissatisfied airline workers and unions
  • add to that Trump administration purges and demoralization of federal workers
  • add to that Musk getting his SpaceX cronies hands all over the system to make 'upgrades'

data nerds can point to historical accident statistics from the past 20 years up to what, 2020? all you like. trend lines don't often accurately predict the future, they merely describe the past.

I recommend thinking twice before placing all your loved ones on a plane over the next couple years. there's going to be more of this.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

My brother works ATC at one of the busiest airports in the country. While forced retirement is at 55, an informal poll of his coworkers that he and his buddies did this week revealed that nearly all of them are planning to take early retirement at 50.

They mapped it out and 80% of the facility will be retiring by 2030. To account for this, his facility alone will need to hire nearly 100 controllers. I asked him how many controllers they've hired recently. He said 2 since 2022.

We're fucked.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 116 points 1 day ago (26 children)

Even if there were 10x the number of accidents flying would still be one of the safest ways to travel.

But I’d still avoid it because of the ergonomics and customer service.

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

My confidence in air travel fell completely after the former head of QA for Boeing’s plane factory said he wouldn’t get on a Boeing plane

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