Americans’ trust in air travel has dropped following a series of plane crashes in 2025, according to a recent poll.
The poll, conducted by AP-NORC and released on Wednesday, found that 64% of Americans now view air travel as safe, a decrease from 71% last year. This marks a notable decline in public confidence.
The survey also revealed that 20% of Americans now consider planes to be unsafe, a 12% increase from 2024. This reflects growing concerns over the safety of air travel.
The public’s confidence in pilots and the federal government’s role in air safety has also fallen. Last year, 45% of Americans expressed strong trust in pilots, but that number dropped to 41% this year. Confidence in federal agencies overseeing air safety has seen a sharper decline, dropping from 20% in 2024 to just 13% this year.
Public confidence in air traffic controllers has also decreased, from 40% last year to 35% this year.
The decline in trust comes after several high-profile aviation accidents. On January 30, an American Airlines plane collided with a military helicopter above the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people on both the plane and the helicopter. This was the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. since 2009, when a Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, New York, killed 49 people and one person on the ground.
The very next day, a medical transport jet crashed into a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia, killing seven people, including a child patient, her mother, and four other passengers. Several homes were also destroyed by the fire caused by the crash.
On February 6, a small commuter plane crashed in Alaska’s Norton Sound, killing all 10 people on board.
Then, on February 19, a Delta Air Lines jet carrying 80 people crash-landed at Toronto Pearson airport, flipping over. While 21 people were hospitalized, all passengers and crew survived.
The wave of crashes has led to an increase in online searches for terms like “Is it safe to fly?” and “How many plane crashes in 2025?” according to multiple reports.
The poll, conducted from February 6 to 10, surveyed 1,112 adults.
Amid these concerns, on February 14, the Trump administration began firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including key workers involved in maintaining air traffic control systems. According to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, “several hundred” workers were dismissed. These included maintenance mechanics, aeronautical information specialists, environmental protection experts, aviation safety assistants, and other management personnel, though air traffic controllers were not affected by the layoffs.
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