FSF Report Warns of Rising Mixed-use Airspace Risk

The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) has released its 2025 Safety Report, anchored by concerns about the dangers inherent in mixed-use airspace. FSF is warning that growing operational complexity and rising demand from traditional and nontraditional operators are putting pressure on the global safety ecosystem, and FSF is calling on industry stakeholders to take urgent, coordinated action to address systemic risk. 

The report, based on data from FSF’s Aviation Safety Network (ASN) database, found that airliners of all types were involved in 101 accidents worldwide in 2025, down 28% from 140 in 2024. Despite the decline in total accidents, commercial fatalities rose sharply. The 12 fatal accidents in 2025 (down from 15 the previous year) resulted in 420 deaths among passengers and crew and 33 more on the ground, compared with 268 passenger and crew fatalities and three ground fatalities in 2024.

Mixed-use airspace safety concerns were given sharp focus last year as a result of the Jan. 29, 2025, midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA) between a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ-701ER on approach to Runway 33, and a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk.

“This is not a localized issue; it is a rising global safety challenge as aircraft in the military, commercial, general aviation, and rotorcraft sectors converge near high-density terminals alongside drones and similar new entrants,” said Hassan Shahidi, FSF president and CEO, in a press release sent with the report. “Managing that convergence requires shared accountability: clear procedures, interoperable equipage, data-driven oversight, and decisive action on recurring risk signals.”

Last year was the worst year for corporate jet fatal accidents in at least nine years, according to the ASN data. Corporate jets were involved in 34 accidents in 2025—up from 28 in 2024, which had been the best year since 2017—with 13 fatal accidents resulting in 57 deaths of both passengers and crew, and four people on the ground.

Three of the 13 fatal corporate aircraft accidents took place in the final two weeks of December alone, accounting for 25 of the year’s passenger and crew fatalities in that category. The deadliest corporate jet accident of the year was the December 15 crash of a Cessna Citation III on approach to Toluca-Licenciado Adolfo López Mateos International Airport (MMTO) in Mexico, which killed both pilots and all eight passengers.

Of the 13 fatal business aviation accidents, four were due to loss of control in-flight (LOC-I), and four were runway excursions. Two were controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), and three were categorized as “unknown.” Twenty of the 34 accidents occurred during the landing phase, with the remainder distributed across other phases of flight.

“While there was some improvement in 2025, runway excursions continue to be the most frequently cited ICAO occurrence category, which makes sense given that a significant majority of corporate jet accidents occur during the landing phase,” the report states. Corporate jets were involved in 12 runway excursion accidents in 2025, four of them fatal, an improvement from the five-year average of 14.2 per year from 2020 through 2024, during which six of the 71 total runway excursion accidents were fatal. The worst year in that period was 2024, when corporate jets were involved in 16 such events.

After runway excursions, the next most commonly cited accident categories in 2025 were system component failure (non-powerplant) with six events; unknown, with five; and LOC-I with four. There were also two CFIT, two abnormal runway contact, and two undershoot/overshoot accidents. During the 2020 to 2024 period, LOC-I was the most lethal category for corporate jets, accounting for 15 of the 37 fatal accidents recorded over those five years.

The deadliest accident of the year was the June 12 crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad International Airport (VAAH) in India. Of the 242 people on board, only one survived; 19 people on the ground also died. In November, a UPS McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) MD-11F went down shortly after takeoff from Louisville-Muhammad Ali International Airport (KSDF) in Kentucky when the left engine separated from the wing near rotation. All three crew members and 12 people on the ground were killed.

For the fourth consecutive year, turbulence led all ICAO occurrence categories in ASN airliner accident data, with 26 events in 2025, down from 35 in 2024, though still above the five-year average of 22.6 per year from 2020 through 2024. LOC-I accidents reversed a two-year downward trend, and there were four midair collision-related events in 2025, more than the combined total of three recorded over the prior five years, though only the DCA accident resulted in fatalities.

The report flagged a steady rise in thermal runaway events involving lithium-ion batteries carried aboard passenger aircraft, with 101 such incidents recorded in 2025, up from 83 in 2024 and well above the five-year average of 57.8 per year from 2020 through 2024. The Jan. 28 fire aboard an Air Busan Airbus A321, Flight BX391, at Busan-Gimhae International Airport in South Korea (RKPK)—in which the aircraft was destroyed after passengers evacuated via emergency slides—is believed to be the first passenger aircraft hull loss accident linked to a lithium-ion battery event. In 2025, power banks were associated with 34 such events, followed by e-cigarettes and cell phones, each at 23.

FSF “strongly encourages states and accident investigation authorities to conduct and complete ICAO Annex 13-compliant accident investigations for all accidents, and to make public the final investigative reports in a timely and transparent manner,” the report states, noting that final reports have been released for only about 58% of airline accidents from 2020 through 2024, and for just 41% of fatal accidents during that period. “Safety leadership, at the executive, managerial, and front-line levels, remains the decisive factor in converting known risk into sustained risk reduction,” the report states.

The foundation has launched an international task force to coordinate the development of a global action plan for the prevention of airborne conflict. “A system operating near its limits has less margin to absorb variability, disruptions, and surprises,” Shahidi said. “Safety improves when hazards are reported, analyzed, and acted upon, and when lessons learned are shared quickly enough to prevent the next occurrence.”

FSF identified three priority areas requiring urgent action: reducing risk in mixed-use airspace, particularly near busy terminal environments; strengthening system capacity and resilience to keep pace with demand and complexity; and restoring and reinforcing the global safety learning cycle through disciplined compliance, mature safety management systems, and transparent accident investigation and reporting aligned with ICAO standards.