Another plane catches fire at Denver Airport. Is flying getting more dangerous?

The scene at Denver International Airport yesterday looked like something from a disaster movie. American Airlines Flight 3023, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Miami, erupted in flames on the runway as passengers desperately slid down emergency chutes to safety. All 173 passengers and six crew members escaped, but one person was hospitalized after what witnesses described as a terrifying ordeal.

"During the speed-up, when the plane almost took off, we heard a loud boom, and I said, 'That's not good,'" passenger Tsurkis told CBS News Miami. "We were lucky that we didn't get up in the air yet."

The incident unfolded at 2:45 PM local time when a tire maintenance issue during takeoff caused the landing gear to catch fire, forcing an immediate abort. Dramatic social media videos captured thick black smoke billowing from beneath the aircraft as passengers ran across the tarmac to safety.

But here's what's truly alarming: This is becoming far too routine.

The era of weekly aviation emergencies

This marks the second American Airlines emergency at Denver International Airport in 2025 alone, following a March incident where passengers were forced to stand on aircraft wings after an engine fire. Just one month later, a United Airlines plane struck an animal during takeoff, shooting flames into the sky.

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The pattern extends far beyond Denver. Recent weeks have witnessed a cascade of aviation emergencies that would have made headlines individually just years ago, but now blur together in a relentless stream of close calls:

July 25: Southwest Airlines Flight 1496 made an emergency descent to avoid mid-air collision, causing severe turbulence that injured flight attendants and passengers

Recent weeks: United Airlines Flight UA876 suffered engine failure en route from Tokyo to San Francisco, while a JetBlue flight experienced mid-flight engine failure, forcing an emergency landing

January 29: The deadliest incident of the year occurred when an American Airlines regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington D.C., killing all 67 people aboard

Aviation analyst Peter Goelz warned travelers should brace for more disruptions: "It will be a dreadful summer, particularly around the high-volume holidays of the Fourth of July and Labor Day," he told CNN.

The Newark wake-up call

Perhaps nowhere illustrates America's aviation crisis more starkly than Newark Liberty International Airport, where a 90-second equipment failure in April exposed decades of underinvestment and chronic staffing shortages that have pushed the system to its breaking point.

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"We're overstretched, we're understaffed, we're all stressed out. Our equipment doesn't work. It's just not sustainable," an air traffic controller told NPR, painting a picture of a system held together by overworked professionals managing antiquated technology.

The Newark crisis revealed shocking truths about America's aviation infrastructure:

Air traffic control systems still rely on computers "based on Windows 95 and floppy disks," according to union officials

The U.S. is currently short between 3,000 to 3,500 air traffic controllers

The average age of control towers is 40 years, with most radar systems approaching four decades old

Are we really flying into danger?

The statistics paint a complex picture. While aviation remains statistically the safest form of transportation, experts point to concerning trends beneath the surface. Aviation expert John Cox noted to EOnline that while "we're going to lose 44,000 people on the roads this year," commercial aviation incidents remain far rarer.

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However, the frequency of mechanical failures, emergency landings, and near-misses has undeniably increased. Multiple factors contribute to this perfect storm:

Infrastructure decay: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced a three-year plan to build a "brand-new air traffic control system" by 2028, acknowledging the current system's failures.

Staffing crisis: The controller shortage has forced airlines to reduce schedules at major airports, while overworked controllers describe writing callsigns in notebooks out of fear of losing radar contact.

Post-Pandemic pressures: Airlines rushing to restore pre-2020 capacity may be stretching maintenance and operational systems beyond safe limits.

What this means for your travel plans

While yesterday's Denver Airport incident ended without serious injury, it represents something larger: an aviation system pushed beyond its designed limits. The urgency to fix these problems "reached a new level" after January's deadly Washington collision, yet meaningful change requires years to implement.

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"It just can't be done quickly," explained Colin Scoggins, a former FAA specialist, to CNN, referring to the massive infrastructure overhaul needed. For now, travelers face a new reality where emergency slides, engine fires, and system failures have become weekly occurrences rather than rare events. The question isn't whether aviation is safe — it generally is, and it's still safer than driving. The question is whether America's aviation infrastructure can handle the demands we're placing on it without more frequent (and likely fatal) reminders of just how quickly things can go wrong at 30,000 feet.

But as passengers at Denver Airport discovered yesterday, sometimes the most dangerous moment of a flight happens before you even leave the ground.

Yahoo CreatorJacqueline KehoeJacqueline is a travel, nature, and science writer based in Wisconsin. Follow her work on Yahoo Creators—or find it in the wild at publications like National Geographic, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, and more.FollowFollow