With complaints that the Trump administration has stripped money and resources from the Federal Aviation Authority, the President himself has blamed diversity hires for an apparent uptick in deadly crashes.
Even without looking at the statistics, the past 12 months have been particularly tragic in terms of aviation accidents, with hundreds of people losing their lives in deadly crashes around the world.
2024 closed out with the harrowing Jeju Air Flight 2216 crash, which became South Korea's most deadly and saw 179 people lose their lives on December 29.
Although two flight attendants survived the crash, there were no survivors when a Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 collided above the Potomac River in January 2025.
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Just one person walked away from the Air India 171 crash, and while a computer glitch was blamed for the accident, there's apparently an unexpected reason that's leading to more plane crashes than you might think.
With an investigation ongoing, it's said that a bird strike might've been responsible for Jeju Air Flight 2216 losing thrust in its right engine, as well as theories that it also stopped the landing gear from properly deploying as the doomed plane headed toward Muan International Airport's runway at 322 km/h.
A new BBC documentary looks at the past 12 months of tragedy, with Why Planes Crash: Aviation's Deadly Year giving us more insight than ever. Dr Carla Dove works at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington and gave her own thoughts on aviation accidents: "The number of bird strikes reported each year is increasing. We don't know the reason for this."
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The documentary claims there were nearly 20,000 bird strikes in the USA alone in 2023. This is an alarming 14% rise from 2022.
65% of bird strikes are said to cause little or no damage to airplanes, but with 80% of them supposedly going unreported, the figures could be much worse. Behind deer, vultures and geese are reported as two of the most deadly wildlife to planes, whereas it's estimated that they cost the global aviation industry $1.2 billion a year.
When it comes to Jeju Air Flight 2216, pilots declared mayday after an unexpected bird strike, saying that they'd attempt to go-around to gain height before trying to land again.
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Muan International Airport's location could've also been crucial to the crash. Feathers of the migratory Baikal teal duck were found among the wreckage of the plane’s engines. They're known to fly in large flocks, with conservation scientist Dr Nial Moores suggesting the airport's serene backdrop meant the risk of bird strikes was already higher: "The majority of these birds have to commute in between where they sleep and where they feed.
"In the case of Muan, because you have tidal flat on one side, to the west of the runway, and then you have rice fields to the east of the runway, any bird that is trying to feed on the tidal flat will have to cross the runway."
Mentions of bird strikes are becoming more common, but back in the day, you might remember the infamous 2009 story where US Airways flight 1549 had to land on the Hudson River after hitting a flock of migrating geese.
Before the Jeju Air incident, the biggest loss of life attributed to bird strikes came when Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 crashed in 1960.
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Still, with quieter planes, increased populations of birds, and shifting bird habitats, bird strikes are only getting more frequent.