Former pilot and accident investigator Shawn Pruchnicki shared his thoughts on the alarming spate of aviation incidents
A former pilot and crash investigator has shared his thoughts on the terrifying spate of plane crashes which have been unfolding in recent weeks.
Although Shawn Pruchnicki believes air travel ‘is still the safest mode of transport we have’, he’s well aware that a lot of people’s faith in the aviation industry has been shaken.
There have been 119 accidents so far this year, according to data from the US’ National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), 16 of which were fatal.
Tragedy has repeatedly struck in the skies over the last two months, causing quite a lot of concern among travellers.
On 29 January, an American Airlines passenger jet collided mid-air with a US army helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.
Just 48 hours later, a medical plane carrying six people plummeted to the ground and exploded into a fireball in Philadelphia, leaving all those onboard and one pedestrian dead.
A small chartered aircraft then crashed in Alaska on 6 February, killing ten people.
Disaster then struck again when Delta Flight 4819, which had departed from Minneapolis, flipped as it touched down on the runway in Toronto, on 17 February.
Thankfully, the 76 passengers and four crew members survived – and have each reportedly been offered $30,000 (£23,800) in compensation.
So, you can understand why there are a lot more nervous flyers these days.
According to Pruchnicki, those who work in the aviation industry saw all of these accidents coming – and he believes it’s down to the decline in solid safety measures.
“As a former commercial pilot, crash investigator and expert in accident causation, I have seen the safety buffer that took decades to build steadily eroded in recent years,” he told the Daily Mail.
And this is coming from a guy who boasts experience as a pharmacist, toxicologist, firefighter and paramedic, while he’s also had his research into aviation safety published by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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“The truth is, the experts have been raising the alarm for years,” Pruchnicki said. “We have watched in horror as planes come within a few hundred feet of each other – on the runway or in the air.
“If planes come within a couple of miles of each other, we start to worry. Any distance noted in feet counts as within a hair’s breadth of disaster!”
The former Delta pilot – who flew for the airline for a decade before being trained in accident investigation at the NTSB Academy – explained he ‘wasn’t surprised’ when the news broke about the American Airlines crash.
Pruchnicki said: “I have long feared that it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ such a catastrophe would happen but ‘where’ and ‘when.’”
He believes the ‘chronic shortage of air traffic controllers’ plays a key part in the growing number of aviation incidents, while pointing out people in this role are ‘over-worked and over-stressed’.
“They know that if they make a mistake someone could die,” he continued. “Another valid concern is that regional and national airlines are hiring pilots and promoting them through the ranks with less experience than ever before.
“We need to continue to develop and invest in technology that will help pilots and air traffic controllers do their jobs – not to replace them, but to assist them.
“Make no mistake, there is still a pretty good safety buffer in place in our skies but it’s shrinking, and we need to act now if we want to stop it from shrinking further.”
Pruchnicki called for ‘more qualified candidates’ to take up air traffic control positions, while urging aviation bosses to implement any changes the (NTSB) suggests to improve safety.
A recent poll conducted by AP-NORC found that Americans’ confidence in aviation had decreased following the numerous plane crashes this year.
Last year, 71 percent of people in the States said they believed that air travel is very or somewhat safe – and in 2025, only 64 percent of people agree with this statement.
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