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The year 2025 has shaken the aviation industry out of its illusion of invincibility. Despite decades of advancement, and rigorous safety protocols that flying remains the safest mode of travel, the skies have turned turbulent in more ways than one.

 

The most devastating blow came on January 29, 2025 when American Airlines Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700, collided mid-air with a US Army Sikorsky UH-6 Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The crash claimed 67 lives reminding us that even in the most advanced aviation systems in the world, something can go terribly wrong. “This was not just a tragic mistake; it was a wake-up call,” said Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), addressing the press after the preliminary findings were released.

 

What followed through the rest of 2025 was not a scattered series of unrelated crashes, but a global pattern of technical failures, emergency landings, fires, near-misses and fatal accidents that shook public confidence and raised urgent questions.

 

India’s aviation sector, which has long been praised for rapid growth, is facing a storm of technical snags, safety violations and operational failures. The most fatal moment came with the ill-fated Air India crash earlier this year in Ahmedabad. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) report revealed a disturbing detail; just seconds after take-off, fuel to both engines was found in CUTOFF mode. The cockpit voice recording reportedly captured a tense exchange where one pilot asked, “Why did you cut off?” referring to the fuel supply to both engines, only to be met with confusion from the co-pilot.

 

Now, aviation experts argue that such a fuel cutoff happens by accident. If that’s true, the incident hints at either a chilling human error or an even deeper systemic failure. Either way, this tragedy feels less like an anomaly and more like a red flag waving at a much larger problem. The urgency with which Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is now reviewing safety protocols suggests that even regulators know something has been slipping through the cracks.

 

Adding to this alarm, July 22 brought yet another unsettling event. Air India Flight AI 315, arriving from Hong Kong, caught fire after landing in Delhi. Thankfully, no injuries were reported, but the visuals of black smoke surfacing online were enough to rattle public confidence further. At this point, it feels less like isolated misfortunes and more like a pattern of operational neglect.

 

An Air India spokesperson tried to downplay the incident, attributing the fire to “overheating of electrical components” and insisting that passenger safety was never at risk. But for the average flyer, this assurance rings hollow. Because even if lives weren’t lost, trust surely was.

 

The problems don’t end here. Over the last few weeks alone, IndiGo, India’s largest airline, has reported multiple in-flight emergencies and technical glitches to viral videos showing malfunctioning ACs on packed flights. An IndiGo flight from Goa to Indore reported a snag right before landing. Another one bound for Imphal had to return to Delhi mid-air. A third flight from Chandigarh to Lucknow was cancelled after pilots detected faults during pre-flight checks. The list keeps growing. Passengers have voiced fear and frustration, with one traveller tweeting, “Flying used to be a routine, now it feels like a gamble.”

 

Also read: Air India crash probe: Theory of absurdity

 

The government can’t entirely downplay the growing concerns. In a written reply to the Parliament, the Civil Aviation Ministry admitted that Air India alone had received nine safety violation notices in recent months. Yet, the official line remains that there’s “no adverse trend” in overall safety reports. That reassurance feels increasingly hollow as fresh incidents continue to surface almost weekly.

 

As the monsoon session of the Parliament begins, the timing couldn’t be more telling. On the opening day of the session, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu assured the house that the probe into the crash remains “rule-based” and “unbiased.” He urged the Parliament to “respect the process” and trust the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which successfully decoded black boxes.

 

However, in a climate of rising fear, growing opacity and repeated technical failures, the public needs more than just procedural reassurances. What this moment truly demands is not just patience, but radical transparency, accountability and visible action.

 

One is left wondering, how many more “technical snags” will it take before India’s aviation industry acknowledges that these aren’t mere bumps in the journey, but signs of a deeper credibility crisis that demands urgent attention?

 

Well, zooming out there are several disturbing symmetries in other countries as well. Recently, Bangladesh suffered one of its darkest aviation moment, when a fighter jet crashed into a school, killing 27, mostly children. The aircraft was Chinese-made, a model long under scrutiny for mechanical issues. In Philadelphia, a Learjet crash caused a residential explosion, killing seven. While earlier, in South Korea, an Airbus A321 caught fire moments before take-off. In South Sudan as well, a Beechcraft 1900 crash killed 20. These are not isolated events; they are symptoms of a global industry pushed to its limits.

 

The aviation crisis of 2025 is not rooted in a single cause, it’s a fallout of a deeply overstretched system struggling with layered, compounding pressures. Technical and mechanical failures, like engines shutdowns, faulty fuel control systems, have become disturbingly frequent. These are often linked to delayed maintenance, shortage of replacement parts and an industry willing to overlook “minor” defects to keep planes flying in the sky.

 

Add to this the human element: pilot errors, often caused by crew fatigue, irregular schedules and chronic understaffing of cockpit and ground teams that remain the leading causes of aviation accidents worldwide. Then comes the cyber and systemic threats, from digital outages and GPS spoofing, which were meant to make flying safer, not riskier.

 

On top of this, climate change is playing an invisible but deadly role, intensifying turbulence and creating hazardous flying conditions, particularly during take-off and landing. The geopolitical landscape, too, has become a factor, aircrafts flying over conflict zones face not only navigational uncertainty but also sabotage strikes.

 

So where does one go from here? These waves of disasters demand something bigger, fixing this isn’t just about tweaking policies or releasing carefully worded investigation reports. Regulators like the ICAO, DGCA and EASA must step beyond audits and enforce real-time accountability, increased investment, publicly accessible safety records and stricter timelines for aircraft maintenance.

 

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just about planes but a common man boarding a flight with the expectation of arriving safely. The stakes are terrifyingly real. We cannot afford another “wake-up call.” This industry must act before confidence falls from 35,000 feet and take lives with it.

 

The skies are not just turbulent; they are sending a warning. The only question now is “who’s listening?”

 

By Shyna Gupta