What’s the riskiest part of your flight? It isn’t cruising at 40,000 feet

By CNN Newsource

Published March 29, 2025 6:00 AM

By Alexandra Skores, CNN

(CNN) — Hurtling through the sky, with nothing below you, apart from 40,000 feet of thin air may feel like a dangerous place to be, but when it comes to traveling in a commercial airplane, it’s by no means the riskiest part of the flight.

Aviation safety has come under renewed scrutiny following a series of harrowing incidents in recent weeks, prompting some anxious travelers to think twice about booking flights.

While we’re often told that flying in a plane is one of the safest modes of transportation, these events — some of them resulting in fatalities — underscore the fact that there are still dangers.

But, according to pilots and aviation experts, these times of jeopardy come down to very specific moments during flight, chiefly takeoff and landing. And some say one is more inherently dangerous than the other.

It’s during these procedures that incidents occurred in recent months, prompting investigations from the US National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration.

National attention on air safety heightened following the January 29 midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when an American Airlines regional jet, moments from landing, was struck by a Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission.

A couple of days later, a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York was evacuated after an engine fire was reported before takeoff. The 104 passengers and five crew members evacuated the aircraft on the runway using slides and stairs.

Less than two weeks later, a Learjet 35A owned by Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil, who was not on the plane, veered off the runway while landing, and crashed into a Gulfstream business jet on the ramp at Scottsdale Municipal Airport, in Arizona, and the pilot died.

Since then, attention to other aviation incidents have stirred public anxieties about flying, and airlines have noticed the financial burden.

‘We’re scared right now’

“Some of us who were being told all the time ‘flying, it’s the safest rate of traveling,’ we are scared right now, actually,” said Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey, to the head of the NTSB at an oversight hearing on March 26.

However, experts remain confident in the country’s safe skies and the ability to fine-tune the critical aspects of flying after learning from these incidents.

Of the 1,468 accidents recorded in 2024 by the International Air Transport Association, 770 occurred on landing and 124 during takeoff.

CNN Transportation Analyst Mary Schiavo attributes the higher percentages of accidents in these phases of flight to the inherent dangers and maneuvers required to take off and land at an airport.

“Airports present lots more stress on the pilots, the air traffic controllers and the aircraft,” Schiavo said.

She thinks landings are more dangerous than takeoffs because there are fewer options when landing.

“It is just really a critical time, especially for mid-airs and collisions, etc.,” Schiavo said. “If you’re taking off, you have the runway. You see the runway in front of you, although sometimes you have people enter the pattern without the right clearances, and they try to land on top of somebody. But descent and landing are the absolute most dangerous time.”

The ‘sterile cockpit’ rule

Takeoffs and landings are not taken lightly. Pilots are trained and retrained to react if something goes wrong during these key moments.

They are so important, according to Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, that the FAA does not permit any unnecessary conversation or activity below 10,000 feet.

The “sterile cockpit” rule was enacted by the FAA in 1981. It sets aside time during these critical moments for a pilot’s focus to be on the takeoff or landing of the airplane.

“It’s so important that your full attention is on one thing, and that’s flying the airplane right on down to the taxi,” Tajer said. “For the actual flying for takeoff, you’re at a heavier weight. You’re accelerating from zero to the speed of being able to fly.”

Pilots have a large number of checklists that are run to perform these tasks, he said.

And there are redundancies if a pilot or controller starts to do something wrong.

Just last week, Southwest Airlines Flight 3278 mistakenly began to take off on a taxiway at Orlando International Airport.

Audio from the control tower showed the exact moment the tower canceled their takeoff.

“Stop Southwest 3278, stop!” an air traffic controller said from the tower, according to audio from Broadcastify. “Cancel takeoff clearance. You’re on H taxiway Southwest 3278.”

Pilots then slammed the brakes to stop. “Yes, sir. We stopped,” the pilot replied.

These recent events brought to light areas where the industry can “strengthen” the system and “decrease risk,” according to Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at many airlines, including PSA, the American Airlines owned carrier involved in January’s deadly midair collision.

“Safety is a shared responsibility that requires commitment from everyone who takes to the skies, from commercial airlines to general and business aviation operators,” Ambrosi said. “Moments like this also reinforce why pilots train relentlessly, hold ourselves to the highest standards and work every day to ensure that air travel remains the safest mode of transportation.”

Incidents and accidents happen more often in general aviation, largely because this category includes more aircraft. General aviation, as opposed to commercial aviation, refers to smaller airplanes, sometimes privately owned and used for recreational purposes.

Mike Ginter, who is the senior vice president of the Air Safety Institute at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said that while there may be more small aircraft takeoff and landing accidents, these are least likely to be fatal.

“Last year we had 195 fatalities,” Ginter said. “But in context, that’s down. That’s a 32-year low. Last year was probably the safest year we’ve ever had, and that’s because we’ve got a 32-year downward slope, and we’re going to continue to do that.”

While it appears there’s many incidents, Ginter said general aviation is continuing to increase its safety record.

Ginter said there are 205,000 general aviation airplanes in the country, and every pilot’s focus is on maintaining safety, and training is focused on that.

What comes next?

Many of the NTSB’s investigations into the recent incidents won’t be finished for a year or more, but it can urge change in the interim.

The FAA implemented one of the NTSB’s urgent recommendations regarding helicopters in Reagan Airport’s airspace following the midair collision investigation.

Pilots, meanwhile, know the risks of takeoffs and landings and don’t take them lightly.

“It may not be a rocket ship, but the amount of activity that’s happening and the convergence of everything going right and being prepared if it doesn’t, is all happening in that heightened point of activity of takeoff or landing,” Tajer said. “It’s critical. We’ve always got our game on, but that’s having your A-game on.”