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India tragedy is exception to the trends of air safety

The Independent

|

June 13, 2025

The heartbreaking loss of Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick is an example of an extremely rare event: a large jet crashing on an intercontinental air route.

- SIMON CALDER

India tragedy is exception to the trends of air safety

Many prospective travellers will see the images of the tragedy in India, and three other passenger jet crashes in the past six months, and conclude that aviation is becoming more dangerous. Yet without diminishing these disasters and the devastating human toll, this remains the safest decade in aviation history.

Such is the obsession with safety among aviation professionals that many risks have been engineered out. The last fatal accident involving a UK passenger jet was in the 1980s. In 2023, accidents and fatalities were at a record low, with no scheduled passenger jets involved in fatal crashes.

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