The first accident took place in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day (Wednesday), when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near the city of Aktau, killing at least 38 of the 67 people on board. The aircraft is the second passenger plane thought to have been downed by Russian air defence systems, after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down in 2014, killing all 298 people onboard.
Another, even deadlier crash occurred on Sunday, when a Jeju Air passenger aircraft veered off the runway and collided with a fence at Muan International Airport in South Korea. Only two of the 181 people on board survived. Two Thai passengers were among the 179 victims of the crash.
However, air travel remains the safest form of transportation per kilometre covered, with just over 1,000 deaths recorded in the decade leading up to 2024, according to a report published by Boeing this year
Citing data from the International Civil Aviation Organisation and Commercial Aviation Safety Team, the report provides details of plane crashes over the past 10 years:
Causes of accidents
Phases of accidents
Accidents per region