The year 2024 has been marked as a particularly tragic year in international aviation history, with several major airplane accidents resulting in significant loss of life. On December 29, just two days before the year’s end, a plane carrying 181 passengers crashed in Muan, South Korea, killing 179 people. Two individuals were rescued alive from the wreckage by emergency personnel.
The aircraft, returning from Bangkok, carried 181 people, including six crew members. It crashed during landing at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, located approximately 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul. The Jeju Air plane skidded off the runway and struck a concrete barrier.
Earlier, on December 25, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer ERJ 190 AR aircraft crashed near Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan, claiming 38 lives. These two major incidents in the latter part of the year accounted for 217 fatalities.
The aviation disasters of 2024 also claimed the lives of prominent figures such as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Mali’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilim. On May 20, the Iranian President perished in a helicopter crash, while on June 11, Mali’s Vice President was killed in a military plane crash.
As the new year, 2025, begins, the aviation sector reflects on a sorrowful 2024, marked by numerous accidents. In December alone, six major airplane crashes resulted in 234 deaths, raising concerns about safety protocols and technical issues in the aviation industry.
On December 22, a private aircraft crash in Gramado, southern Brazil, claimed the lives of 10 members of a single family, including Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, a Brazilian businessman, his wife, three daughters, and other relatives. On December 24, an Air Canada plane skidded during landing and caught fire.
Similarly, on December 22, a plane operated by Northern Coastal Aviation crashed in Papua New Guinea, killing all five onboard. An Islander aircraft went down, resulting in the fatalities.
In Argentina, a Bombardier Challenger 300 crashed near San Fernando Airport, killing both pilots. Meanwhile, a Kamaka Air LLC aircraft crashed near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, United States, also claiming the lives of both pilots. On August 9, a plane crash in Vinhedo, Brazil, resulted in the deaths of all 62 passengers aboard.
Nepal was not spared from aviation tragedies in 2024. On July 24, a Saurya Airlines plane crash killed 18 people. Similarly, on August 7, a helicopter crash in Shivapuri, Kathmandu, involving Air Dynasty claimed five lives. The Yeti Airlines ATR-72 crash in 2023, which killed all 72 passengers, remains the deadliest domestic aviation incident in Nepal’s history.
Captain R.K. Sharma, Operations Director of Buddha Air, commented that while 2024 was globally a tragic year for aviation, Nepal witnessed some improvements. “For Nepal, 2024 was relatively positive. However, the major global incidents towards the year-end marked 2024 as a sorrowful year for aviation,” he said. Sharma emphasized the need for airlines to enhance aviation safety, security, and management capacity.
Globally, the number of air passengers has shown a positive increase in 2024. However, experts stress that the rising passenger volume brings heightened pressure to strengthen safety and security measures. Achyut Pahadi, an aviation expert, echoed these concerns, stating that “2024 has been a devastating year for aviation, marked by significant accidents and loss of life.”
Former Director-General of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, Sanjiv Gautam, also described 2024 as a challenging year for aviation, citing the December crashes in South Korea and Kazakhstan as major setbacks. He called for states and stakeholders to focus on learning from these incidents and enhancing aviation safety.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) aims to eliminate human-error-related accidents by 2030. Despite the annual 10% increase in air passengers, the global air travel figure has now reached approximately five billion, up from 4.5 billion in 2019.
In Nepal, the number of domestic air passengers increased by 13%, and international passengers rose by 7.9% in 2024 compared to 2023. By November 2024, 8.76 million domestic passengers and 4.45 million international passengers had traveled by air.
Since 1955, Nepal has recorded 108 air crashes resulting in 959 deaths, with the first crash involving India’s Kalinga Air in Simara. The year-end accidents in South Korea and Kazakhstan have cast a shadow over aviation safety worldwide, prompting concerns about how secure air travel truly is. Experts attribute most aviation accidents to poor weather conditions and human error. In 2024, over 400 fatalities were reported from major plane crashes globally.
