2025 Aviation Year in Review
With just a couple days remaining in 2025, I thought it would be fun to round up all the crazy aviation happenings throughout this year. I tried to pick the most notable incident for each month that was unique - not something that happens regularly, like an airshow even if it’s an important one. People will disagree with my choices, and I’d love to hear your alternative thoughts!
January: Washington, D.C. Midair Collision
2025 got off to a horrifically tragic start when, on January 29th, an American Eagle CRJ-700 (being operated by PSA Airlines) collided on final approach to Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport with a United States Army Blackhawk helicopter. All 67 occupants of both aircraft perished in the icy Potomac River which DCA sits along.
The crash brought the busy DC helicopter corridors to the public’s attention. Washington is crisscrossed by dozens of rotorcraft every day, shuttling diplomats, politicians, and government officials around the American capital city. One of the busiest destinations for these helicopters is the Pentagon (home to the Department of Defence), which sits about a kilometer away from DCA. The accident led to a change in guidelines and helicopter routings in and around Washington, D.C.
February: Delta Connection Flight 4819
This was not a great start to the year for CRJs, but thankfully the outcome of this incident was far better than the previous. A Delta Connection CRJ-900, operated by Endeavor Air, flipped and skidded alongside the runway upon landing at Toronto-Pearson International Airport following a flight from Minneapolis. All 76 passengers and four crew members survived (although 21 emerged injured), likely thanks to the snowbank they came to a stop in. Coming less than a month after the Washington, D.C. crash, the incident garnered massive media attention, thus why I think it’s February’s most prominent aviation event.
March: Heathrow Airport Substation Fire
Image Credit: The Boston Globe
On March 20th, a fire broke out at an electrical substation in Hayes, just outside of London. The blaze cut energy supplies to Heathrow Airport, which is the fifth busiest on Earth. The airport completely shut down for a total of 16 hours which left 200,000 people stranded and 1,000 flights cancelled. At least 120 flights that were inbound to Heathrow at the time of the fire were forced to divert. There was initially a concern of a potential terrorist attack (since it involved critical infrastructure), though that was ruled out by investigators after they forensically examined the scene.
April: Pakistani Airspace Closure
Image Credit: FlightRadar24 via Business Insider
On April 24th, Pakistan completely closed their airspace to Indian aircraft amid rising tensions between the two Asian countries.
The closure was in response to India’s military strikes in the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir the previous month. This was a major blow to India’s international carriers, particularly Indigo and Air India. Pakistan is quite hard to avoid, especially for India - North America and India - Europe flights, meaning a couple hours have to be added to flights. This isn’t necessarily feasible especially on super long flights. Some flights to North America were outright suspended, while others were routes with fuel stops in Europe. Other non-Indian airlines, like Qantas, British Airways, and Air France opted to avoid Pakistani airspace as well out of an abundance of caution.
May: Newark Air Traffic Control Blackout
Image Credit: People Magazine
In early May, Newark’s Liberty International Airport (which is technically in New Jersey but serves the New York City Metro area primarily) suffered a series of air traffic control blackouts. For 90 seconds at a time or so, controllers in the TRACON would totally lose radar coverage and communication with aircraft. Thankfully, nothing tragic came of it, but it was a clear wakeup call about controller shortages, outdated technology, and the generally poor structure of the American ATC system.
The blackouts were caused by problematic telecommunications tech, which was a single copper wire running from Long Island all the way to Philadelphia. This was only the case because the TRACON facility had been moved from New York to Pennsylvania for consolidation’s sake, due to controller shortages. The outages really only exacerbated the shortages, as some controllers had to take trauma leave in the aftermath of it all.
June: Air India 171
On June 12th, Air India flight 171 operating from Ahmedabad to London crashed shortly after takeoff into the hostel of a medical school. 229 passengers and 12 crew members were killed, along with 19 people on the ground. Miraculously, one passenger actually managed to quite literally walk away from the devastation with only minor injuries. This was the first fatal crash and first hull loss involving the Boeing 787 since its entry to service in 2011, as well as the deadliest crash of the 2020s thus far.
The incident is under investigation by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (so please do not speculate), but a preliminary report shows that the fuel control switches for both engines were switched from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” a mere three seconds after liftoff from Ahmedabad. Again, the AAIB did not determine the cause for the shutoff, so this is not the space to speculate or draw premature conclusions.
July: Delta Severe Turbulence Incident
Image Credit: FlightRadar24
On July 30th, Delta Air Lines flight 56, an A330neo operating a Salt Lake City - Amsterdam flight was forced to divert to the airline’s Minneapolis hub following an encounter with severe or extreme turbulence at 37,000 feet over Wyoming as it navigated around popup thunderstorms. 25 passengers and all seven crew members were transported to the hospital, making it (from what I can tell) the most injurious turbulence incident in American history.
This incident in and of itself is noteworthy, but it’s a glaring example of the rising rates of severe turbulence incidents encountered across the world. There’s more flights than ever, and scientists expect climate change to cause more turbulence than ever. Most concerningly, according to the European Geosciences Union, this turbulence is increasingly going to be clear air turbulence, which is inherently undetectable and thus more dangerous.
August: Air Canada Flight Attendants Strike
Image Credit: Fortune
Beginning on August 16th, almost 11,000 Air Canada flight attendants went on strike amid an ongoing labor dispute. The flight attendants were demanding pay for time on the ground when they were working (IE: during boarding), as well as a general raise in pay to meet cost of living increases. The Canada Industrial Relations Board and Labor Minister issued a return-to-work order to the flight attendants to counteract the gigantic impacts the strike was having during the busy summer air travel season, but that order was ignored by the union.
The strike came to an end three days after it began after a tentative agreement between Air Canada and the union was reached. According to BBC estimates, half a million travelers were impacted and it would take the airline over a week to fully recover. Over 3,200 Air Canada flights were cancelled during the strike, leading to a loss of C$430 million ($314 USD).
September: European Airport Ransomware Attack
Image Credit: BBC News
On September 20th, airports across Europe, including Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin were hit by a major cyberattack. It didn’t directly hit the airports themselves, but rather Collins Aerospace and MUSE, which provide mission-critical operational support to the airports.
In Brussels, half of flights for an entire weekend were outright cancelled, as things like check in, bag drop, and boarding had to go paper-and-pen. Other airports had to drastically reduce the number of operations to keep up with the new pressures, albeit not to the level of Brussels. The EU’s agency for cybersecurity confirmed to the press that it was a ransomware attack, and a criminal gang was essentially holding all these systems hostage until they received a payment.
It seems like the companies either quietly paid the ransom or were able to rectify the situation internally, since operations were able to normalize.
October: The Airbus A320 Surpasses the Boeing 737 in Deliveries
Image Credit: The Aviation Geek Club
In October, the Airbus A320 Family finally surpassed the Boeing 737 Family in total deliveries, taking the crown for the most delivered jet in history. According to Reuters, the plane that sealed the deal was an A320neo to Saudi Arabian LCC Flynaus, which accepted the 12,260th A320 series plane in history. The A320 Family has been around since 1988 and the 737 about 20 years longer, since 1967.
November: Airbus A320 Software Glitch
Image Credit: Simple Flying
The A320’s glory didn’t last too long, as it was crippled by a major software problem in late November. According to an Airbus press release, “analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical.” The incident in question was onboard a jetBlue flight from Cancun to Newark, which suffered a large drop over the Caribbean, necessitating a diversion to Fort Lauderdale. Over 6,000 A320s had to have a software update pushed before their next flight, which was the largest recall in Airbus’ history.
According to American Airlines via AP News, the fix only takes about two hours, but it still caused a massive ripple effect globally with rolling delays and cancellations. It was especially unfortunate timing in the United States, which was still recovering from huge delays stemming from the government shutdown as well as the busy Thanksgiving travel season.
First-Ever Automated Emergency Landing in a GA Plane
Image Credit: CNN
A Beechcraft King Air B200 safely landed at Denver’s Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport using only an automated software on December 22nd. Shortly after taking off from Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, the pilot reported a pressurization issue to air traffic control. What happened next is still unclear, but according to Denver 7 News, the pilot became “incapacitated” and the plane’s Garmin Autoland system was activated (presumably by a conscious passenger). The plane was able to land without incident, and according to the North Metro Fire Rescue District, nobody required medical attention.
This is the first time a plane has ever fully landed itself in a true emergency. It has been tested numerous times of course, but it’s never had to be done in a truly emergent fashion before. This sort of technology, which was pioneered by Cirrus, is a lifesaver in single pilot operations. Say a pilot is alone in the air and starts to feel ill - if they were to lose control of the plane or become incapacitated, it would be a death sentence for them and potentially people on the ground. With this sort of tech, they can press a button and be OK. Additionally, if there’s a single pilot that
What Do You Think Was the Defining Aviation Event of 2025?
- Washington, D.C. Midair Collision
- Delta Connection Flight 4819
- Heathrow Airport Substation Fire
- Pakistani Airspace Closure
- Newark Air Traffic Control Blackout
- Air India 171
- Delta Severe Turbulence Incident
- Air Canada Flight Attendant Strike
- European Airport Ransomware Attack
- A320 Surpasses 737 in Deliveries
- A320 Software Glitch
- First-Ever Automated Emergency Landing in a GA Plane
You may notice I omitted pictures for some of the months - this was intentional. For one, I had to stay under the Real World Aviation category’s 10 photo rule. Secondly, it didn’t feel respectful to put up an image of a crashed plane, both to people seeing this topic and the people involved in the incidents.
This topic was made with moderator approval by @tomthetank
You can review sources for everything here