In the past few years, there has been seemingly a concerning number of plane incidents. While these incidents are concerning, the majority response of netizens is to blame Boeing, under the slogan, “if it’s Boeing, I’m not going”. Now, there are options on major booking sites to exclude Boeing planes, and such bad public perception of Boeing has led to many airlines canceling orders in favour of the more popular Airbus aircrafts. However, this response misses key reasons for the crashes out of the control of aircraft manufacturers like Boeing (and no, some of these flights did not even involve Boeing planes). Anyhow, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there is no doubt that in the past few years, there has been a notable amount of major incidents that seemed to be far and far between in the 2010s. 2 things can be true at once. Number 1: Air safety is not getting worse recently, it is getting better and the difference can be attributed to reporting bias. Number 2: The developments at Boeing are concerning the future of air travel safety. 

In the past few years, there has indeed been a flurry of high level incidents in aviation. It all seemingly started when the Max series experienced problems with MCAS, leading to two fatal accidents in Ethiopia and Indonesia before COVID. While the lockdown forcibly slowed the rate of incidents, a flurry of incidents with a blown door on Alaskan Airlines and a fallen wheel on United Airlines flights increased awareness of air accidents once again in the US in 2024. At the end of the year, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after a missile incident on Christmas day, and just four days later, a Jeju Air fatally overran the runway. Not even a month later, the first major fatal incident on US soil since 2009 occurred in Washington as an American Airlines flight collided with a military blackhawk. Just as the noise quieted down, an Air India flight crashed in Ahmedabad, bringing attention to the issue once again. People simply do not trust air travel now, as trust in air travel has fallen from 71% last year to 64% this year, with the previous figure already damaged following previous incidents. 

Boeing deserves criticism, but so does Airbus, and any other aircraft manufacturer. Beyond them, the airlines, the national regulators, and the ICAO all deserve some blame for the flurry of incidents that have occurred in the last few years. Analysing all the major incidents that made the news however, it is easy to realize that some major incidents that are concerning have been ignored while minor incidents that followed major incidents are overstated. This all comes down to the fact that during a busy period of media frenzy, any small incident that often happens on a daily basis seems serious and receives coverage. The number of incidents have not gone up, the number of cameras has. Analysing each individual entry listed earlier, it is easy to realize that not all these incidents are as serious as they seem, and they can certainly not all be traced back to a single scapegoat like Boeing. 

The solution to false perceptions about aviation, and about any topic in general, is to not believe clickbait titles released by the media at face value. It is important to physically read the article to understand the issue, and do independent research before believing it and joining campaigns that are nothing but harmful misinformation. By believing in the false premise that Boeing is making planes to kill people, and spreading such stories around the web, netizens are partially responsible for harming people's lives as their baseless and pointless boycotts cause mass layoffs and a slowing of research and development that can improve air infrastructure to make air travel cheaper, faster, and critically, safer. The solution is simple but hard to enforce, as it relies on media companies betraying their profit maximizing article strategies and people resisting the fear mongering from these sources: 

1. Start researching big statistics and historical data to make sure that an event is as significant as the media claims it to be.

2. Double check the facts of the event to differentiate established facts from investigations from speculation to not spread misinformation.

3. Be careful when participating in boycotts and should understand the issue thoroughly before entering any such movements.

4. Resist the urge to click on clickbait titles and boycott media companies who rely on fearmongering by canceling subscriptions to incentive more honest reporting