These plane crash survivors and victims’ loved ones are becoming scared to fly again after years of travel. They’re not alone

Handley has flown countless times since her mother’s death and has never been able to shake her nervousness. But the January blowout – and a string of recent mishaps involving Boeing jets – has ratcheted her anxieties to new levels.

“I know my brother and my sisters feel the same way,” she said. “You wonder, ‘Has there been enough due diligence with this individual plane, with this airline, with this manufacturer?’ And those feelings are heightened with the Boeing incidents.”

Though no passengers were killed during the Alaska Airlines incident, experts have said it could have been far more catastrophic. The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board has warned that “something like this can happen again.”

The two seats closest to the door plug were thankfully unoccupied, yet the blowout caused an air pressure loss severe enough to rip a boy’s shirt off and twist the seats’ metal frames toward the opening. An early assessment from the NTSB found that Boeing may have left critical bolts off the jet.

The blowout is among a handful of harrowing air travel incidents that have contributed to a growing sense of unease among some travelers, including a violent plunge that sent passengers slamming into the ceiling of a Boeing Dreamliner jet last month and a case of severe turbulence that required several people to be taken to the hospital.

A parade of less severe mishaps has also captured attention.

The Federal Aviation Administration is taking a close look at United Airlines after nearly a dozen incidents so far this year – all on Boeing jets – including a missing external panel, flames shooting from an engine after takeoff, and a wheel popping off. The string of incidents has led sisters Cara and Erin Ashcraft, who survived a fatal 1999 plane crash, to seriously second-guess air travel for the first time in years.

“We have both flown many times since the crash, but for the first time in my life, I’m afraid I could be in another crash again,” Cara said in response to CNN’s call for readers’ input on air travel.

The sisters were 10 and 13 years old when their plane overran a runway and crashed in Little Rock, Arkansas, killing 11 people and seriously injuring most other passengers. Both sisters recovered from serious burns from a fire that erupted during the crash and vowed not to let the terrifying incident prevent them from traveling. The last major fatal commercial plane accident in the United States was in 2009, and between 2010 and 2022, there have been only five commercial flight accident deaths. Last year, international commercial aviation boasted a record low fatality risk, with a person needing to travel by air every day for 103,239 years on average to experience a fatal accident, according to the International Air Transport Association’s annual safety report.

But even as the risk of a commercial plane crash is low, the Ashcraft sisters and other readers expressed concern that other in-air events such as severe turbulence could be traumatizing and have already begun to chip away at their trust in air travel safety.

“I’m not saying that people should never fly again or I won’t ever fly again,” Erin Ashcraft said. “But I think that the erosion of public trust is a huge issue.”

‘I’ve never had concerns before. This is new’
Trey Smith has long relied on United Airlines for his monthly work trips out of Virginia, often catching up on sleep while in the air. But the series of incidents on United aircraft in recent months has made him increasingly restless on flights and led him to reconsider his preferred airline.

“I’ve never had concerns (about air travel safety) before. This is new,” Smith told CNN.

During recent flights, Smith said he has begun to use United’s flight-tracking app to monitor the aircraft’s path and altitude for any sign of a disturbance. He has also been delaying planning a trip with his wife and four daughters because he’s nervous about bringing his children on a plane.

“Traveling was fun once upon a time, but now it’s more it’s more scary and worrisome,” he said. “I’m not gonna lie, I pray more now before we take off and before we land.”

Smith believes airlines should disclose an aircraft’s maintenance and inspection records to travelers so they can make “an educated decision” about their flight and the aircraft.