Fifteen fatal accidents in 2018 caused 556 fatalities, according to the Aviation Safety Network, with a handful of major incidents causing the bulk of deaths. The worst of these came in October, when a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed into the sea, killing 189. In May, a Cubana 737 crashed just after take-off from Havana, killing 112.
Others involved US-Bangla Airlines in Nepal, when 51 died, Russia’s Saratov Airlines, which killed 71 and Iran’s Aseman Airlines, when 66 died. The US saw its first fatal accident since 2009, when a woman was killed on a Southwest Airlines flight when an engine broke apart, shattering a window.
