With two major passenger aircraft crashes at the end of last year, 2024 officially closed as the deadliest year in commercial aviation since 2018.
The first incident, an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killed at least 38 of the 67 people on board.
A US official told CNN that early indications suggest a Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed the passenger jet.
Reuters also reported that the plane was downed by a Russian air defence system, citing multiple unnamed sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation.
In the second incident, just two of the 181 people on board South Korean airline Jeju Air survived when the passenger jet crash-landed at an airport in the country’s southwest on December 29.
The aircraft skidded down the runway at Muan International Airport on its belly before bursting into flames. The two survivors – both crew members, one male and one female – were rescued from the tail section, the only part of the aircraft that remained intact, emergency services said.
It was the deadliest aviation disaster to hit South Korea since 1997, according to CNN.
Data compiled by Cirium shows that onboard passenger aircraft fatalities last year jumped to 318 with these two recent crashes.
This is by far the highest death toll since more than 500 people died in 2018, a year marked by the first of two Boeing 737 Max crashes.
The government of South Korea has announced that it will conduct nationwide inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft following the deadly crash at Muan International Airport.
The Azerbaijan Airlines incident is also still being investigated.
