While Africa’s airline accident safety record improved in 2025 with a reduced number of accidents compared with 2024, the continent’s accident rate remains the highest of any region.
During 2025, Africa’s airlines saw seven aircraft accidents compared with 11 in 2024, according to data from IATA’s 2025 Safety Report.
The most common causes for accidents in Africa were runway excursions and what IATA categorises as ‘other end state’. ‘Other end state’ refers to accidents where precise categorisation for the accident cause and type cannot be determined for various reasons, including insufficient information.
“A review of ‘other end state’ cases since 2018 shows that the African region accounts for the majority of these events, underscoring the continent’s need for improved compliance with state investigation obligations. Of accidents involving African-based operators, 71% involved turboprop aircraft,” said Willie Walsh, IATA DG.
Improvements amid high accident rate
Africa’s reduced aviation accident number is reflected in an improved all-accident rate (accidents per one million flights), coming down from 12,13 per million sectors (about one accident per 82 440 flights) in 2024 to 7,86 in 2025 (about one accident per 127 226 flights).
While this marked a significant improvement for African aviation, falling below its five-year average all-accident rate, the continent maintained the highest all-accident rate of any region, far exceeding the 1,32 per million sectors global average all-accident rate.
Worldwide, there were 51 accidents recorded – among the 38,7 million flights undertaken – eight of which involved fatalities.
Fatalities rise
In 2025, Africa’s fatality risk (fatalities per one million flights) increased from zero in 2024 to 2,19, with Africa accounting for 25 onboard fatalities.
Globally, fatality risk increased to 0,17 per million flights, higher than 0,06 per million flights 2024. The increase in fatality risk was driven by only eight fatal accidents, which accumulated 394 fatalities.
Air India flight 171 accounted for 241 fatalities and American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines’ flight 5342 accounted for 64 fatalities, which constituted over 77% of all loss of life on board aircraft in 2025.
“Flying is so safe that even one accident among the nearly 40 million flights operated annually moves the global data. Every accident is, of course, one too many. The goal for aviation remains zero accidents and zero fatalities,” said Walsh.
