‘Tragic and timely reminder’: ICAO urges stronger aviation safety action as 2024 accidents and fatalities climb
August 12, 2025
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has urged the global aviation community to intensify cooperation on safety priorities after new figures revealed a sharp rise in commercial air transport accidents and fatalities in 2024.
According to ICAO’s 2025 Edition Safety Report – State of Global Aviation Safety, there were 95 accidents involving scheduled commercial flights last year, a 43.9% increase on 2023’s total of 66.
Ten of those accidents were fatal, resulting in 296 deaths, up from 72 fatalities in 2023. The global accident rate rose to 2.56 accidents per million departures, compared with 1.87 the previous year.
Despite the increase, both accident numbers and rates remain lower than pre-pandemic 2019 levels, even as the aviation system handled record traffic volumes. Last year, there were 4.53 billion passengers and more than 37 million departures worldwide.
“Aviation remains the safest form of transport, and the long-term trend demonstrates continuous improvement,” says ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar. He described the figures as “a tragic and timely reminder that sustained, collective action is necessary to keep advancing toward ICAO’s goal of zero fatalities in commercial air transport.”
Aviation safety high-risk categories
ICAO’s analysis identified four high-risk occurrence categories: controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), loss of control in flight (LOC-I), mid-air collision (MAC) and runway incursion (RI). Together, these accounted for 25% of fatalities and 40% of fatal accidents in 2024.
Turbulence encounters were the single largest cause of serious injuries, responsible for nearly three-quarters of the total. ICAO has warned that climate change may increase both the frequency and severity of clear air turbulence in the coming decades.
A Delta Air Lines A330 encountered severe turbulence during its flight to Amsterdam. pic.twitter.com/j5SCXGRwZC
— aircraftmaintenancengineer (@airmainengineer) August 2, 2025
The report also flags the growing threat from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio frequency interference, including jamming and spoofing, which can degrade or mislead navigation systems. While some incidents occur in conflict zones, ICAO notes that many are unrelated to such areas, making detection and prevention more challenging.
Regional variations in aviation safety incidents
The Asia-Pacific and Europe/North Atlantic regions each recorded three fatal accidents in 2024. Asia-Pacific saw the highest number of fatalities (185), followed by South America (62) and Europe/North Atlantic (40).
North America, Central America and the Caribbean had the highest number of accidents overall (37), but just one fatal accident resulting in six deaths. Western and Central Africa recorded the highest accident rate at 7.62 per million departures, although none were fatal.
ICAO recommends aviation safety initiatives
In response to these findings, ICAO is advancing several targeted safety initiatives, including:
- Runway safety – Global action plans to reduce runway excursions and incursions.
- Turbulence mitigation – Enhanced real-time monitoring and forecasting to help operators avoid severe weather.
- GNSS protection – New guidance on spoofing and jamming countermeasures, updates to navigation manuals, and cooperation with international bodies to safeguard navigation signals.
- Data-driven prevention – Strengthened systems for accident/incident and wildlife strike reporting to better detect emerging risks.
- Civil-military cooperation – Promoting joint airspace management to improve safety in both peacetime and conflict scenarios.
- Future airspace integration – Developing regulatory frameworks for the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles.
ICAO emphasises that sustained commitment, innovation and cross-border collaboration will be essential to achieving its long-term aspiration of zero fatalities in commercial aviation.
