Short answer: no. By any practical metric that matters to line pilots and operators, 2023 was not an unusually deadly year for commercial aviation worldwide. The year had a handful of high profile and tragic accidents, but the bulk of fatal outcomes came from turboprops, small commuter aircraft and business aviation rather than scheduled jet airline operations.
What the numbers say
The Aviation Safety Network’s year listing for 2023 shows a few hundred recorded occurrences across all aircraft types and, by the ASN count, under two hundred total fatalities for the calendar year. That raw total is driven disproportionately by a very small number of events.
The single largest loss of life on a scheduled passenger flight in 2023 was the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 that crashed on approach to Pokhara, Nepal, killing 72 people. Investigators concluded the accident stemmed from inadvertent feathering of the propellers during a visual approach, with human factors and procedural problems identified in subsequent reports. That one event accounts for a very large share of the year’s passenger fatalities.
Other notable fatal events in 2023 included a business jet that crashed in Russia with ten fatalities and a regional turboprop accident in Brazil that killed 14 people. Those accidents were tragic and heavily reported, but they were not representative of the global scheduled-jet safety picture.
Why 2023 feels worse than the numbers imply
Two realities shape public perception. First, modern social media and round the clock news coverage amplify every fatal event. A single crash with many victims will dominate headlines and social timelines for days. Second, high profile names or geopolitically charged crashes attract extra attention and speculation. Both factors make any year with a handful of big stories feel worse than the statistical baseline. The baseline itself, however, has been improving for decades.
Operational takeaways for pilots and operators
1) Turboprops and regional operations remain high risk in certain environments. The Yeti ATR accident was a reminder that the dynamics of propeller aircraft, short or visual approaches and high workload require unrelenting adherence to SOPs and effective crew resource management. If you fly turboprops or supervise crews that do, prioritize type training, go around discipline and clear call and response standards for low altitude configuration changes.
2) Business and corporate aviation show different risk patterns. Corporate jets operate to a wide variety of fields, often in single-pilot or sparsely supported environments. The August corporate jet accident that killed ten illustrates the importance of security of maintenance, vetting of flight planning in contested or high-threat environments and redundant procedural safeguards for high value or high-risk flights.
3) Weather, short runways and remote fields matter. The Brazil crash in the Amazon occurred in heavy rain during an approach, a situation that has been a recurring causal factor in regional accidents. If your operation includes short or remote strips, treat stabilized approach criteria and conservative dispatch decisions as non negotiable.
4) Investigations still point to human factors. Across several 2023 accidents final and preliminary findings emphasize human performance, training gaps and procedural non compliance. That is where operators and regulators get the most leverage: targeted training, honest line checks and a genuine safety management system that acts on frontline reports.
What regulators and industry should focus on next
Regulators should continue to zero in on regional oversight, pilot training standards for high workload approaches and surveillance of operators that fly in austere environments. For airlines and corporate operators the priority is the same as it always has been: competent training, realistic line checks and preservation of a safety culture that lets crews speak up and enforce go arounds without career or financial penalty. Those are practical, proven levers for preventing the kinds of human factor chain that repeatedly show up in accident reports.
Bottom line for pilots and the traveling public
A single catastrophic event can make a year feel like a bad one. The data for 2023 do not support the idea that global commercial aviation suddenly became more dangerous. Instead the year reinforced two points that line pilots already know: there is no room for complacency, and the largest gains come from focusing on the everyday basics of airmanship, discipline and oversight. Train, brief, crosscheck and maintain the discipline to go around. That is how we keep the cumulative risk low flight by flight, year after year.