As we kick off 2025, the United States has started dealing with a strange pattern of issues.  Since the beginning of February, there have been over 3 plane crashes. It all started on January 29, 2025. American Airlines Flight 5342, was having a seemingly normal departure from Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower Airport and was able to land at Ronald Reagan Airport. It was about half a mile (800 m) short of runway 33 at the airport when it crashed into a Black Hawk Helicopter and fell into the Potomac River. All 67 people aboard the two aircraft were killed in the crash (64 on the airliner, 3 on the helicopter). It was the first major U.S. commercial passenger flight crash since Colgan Air Flight 3407 in 2009. In addition, it was the deadliest non-terrorism-related aviation crash since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens, New York in November 2001. 

Then on February 6, a flight from Houston, Texas, to New York City was evacuated after an engine problem forced it to abort the takeoff procedure. Although there were no deaths or injuries, it did spook a lot of people, especially considering the recent plane crash in Washington, D.C. There were 104 passengers at the time after all. In São Paulo, Brazil, a shocking accident occurred when a small plane crashed onto a busy road and hit an oncoming bus, killing 2 people. 

So what is the meaning of these aviation accidents? In addition to the lives lost and the damage caused, families of the victims in the plane crashes are suffering. The Federal Aviation Administration governments worldwide are investigating all of these accidents. The FAA has responded by improving measures, such as slowing arrivals and departures. They have specifically reduced the number of flights going into Ronald Reagan Airport, while the FAA investigations are still ongoing into the incidents in Houston and San Paulo.