German Aviation Trends: Deaths Up, Drones a New Risk

What the numbers show

The main source is the Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU), Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation in Braunschweig. Its yearly Table C for 2025 (data as of 30 January 2026, so provisional) lists 116 accidents and 5 serious incidents in civil aviation in Germany, with 17 fatal accidents and 26 deaths. That is more than double the 12 deaths in the 2024 table and the 16 in the 2023 table, but it is within the range of earlier years: the BFU’s tables show 29 deaths in 2016, 35 in 2018, 31 in 2020 and 41 in 2021. Figures are revised as cases are reclassified; the first 2022 table showed 30 deaths, later corrected to 28. For 2025, drones appear in the statistics for the first time, with 23 accidents and no deaths.

The 2025 deaths were spread across general aviation: 10 in aeroplanes of up to 2 tonnes, 5 in helicopters, 4 in other aircraft types, 3 in gliders and 2 each in aeroplanes of 2 to 5.7 tonnes and touring motor gliders. These counts are incomplete for the lightest aircraft. Under German law the BFU does not normally investigate accidents with microlights, hang-gliders and paragliders (Luftsportgeräte, “sport aviation devices”); its 2022 study covered only the 148 such events it did investigate between 2000 and 2019, in which 144 people died. Airline passengers are the best protected group: the deadliest recent disaster involving a German airline, Germanwings flight 9525, crashed in the French Alps on 24 March 2015, killing all 150 people on board, and so was investigated by France’s BEA.

What is driving it

Most fatal accidents involve private and club flying, where weather, pilot decisions and short take-offs and landings at small airfields play a large part. The summer of 2026 has followed that pattern: two men died when a light aircraft crashed on approach during a flying club’s summer festival at Weinheim in September (SWR), and in the Erkelenz crash the pilot had been in contact with air traffic control’s flight information service about bad weather (WDR). In airline flying the risks are mostly on the ground and in take-off and landing: in 2026 the BFU has opened investigations into a Boeing 787 whose nose landing gear retracted at a Frankfurt parking position, injuring two people seriously, and a Boeing 787 tail strike at Munich that it later reclassified as an accident.

Drones are the fastest-growing concern. DFS reported 225 disruptions in 2025, compared with 92 in 2020, 125 in 2019 and 158 in 2018 (DFS); it notes that part of the rise may come from new detection systems used by the Federal Police since 2025. Some sightings are now treated as security threats: in August 2026 a drone loaded with explosives was found near a Ukrainian transport aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport (tagesschau). Air traffic is also busier, with 3.071 million flights in German airspace in 2025, 3.5% more than in 2024 (DFS). Since the end of 2024 the BFU no longer publishes its monthly bulletins of reported occurrences, so final reports and annual tables are now the main public record.

Recent cases

• 4 October 2026: two people die when a microlight crashes into a vineyard after aborting a landing at a small airfield near Gundelsheim, Baden-Württemberg (SWR).
• 28 September 2026: the BFU publishes its interim report on the Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787-9 that struck its tail on take-off at Munich on 15 August, saying inspection found damage affecting the aircraft’s structural integrity (BFU).
• 14 September 2026: three people die when a Cessna from a flight school in Hilversum, Netherlands, on its way to Freiburg, crashes in a field at Erkelenz-Gerderath, North Rhine-Westphalia (WDR).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from German federal and state government agencies, regulators, accident investigators and national statistics; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Many official releases are published only in German; for those we give an English translation of the title and mark the link (in German). Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

2026

• 28 Sep 2026BFU2nd Media Release on the Status of the Investigation into an accident involving a Boeing B787-9 on 15 August at Munich Airport
• 18 Aug 2026BFUMedia Release on the Status of the Investigation into a Serious Incident involving a Boeing B787-9 on 15 August at Munich Airport
• 8 Jul 2026BFUMedia release on the status of the accident investigation involving a Boeing B787-9 on 4 June 2026 at a parking position at Frankfurt Main Airport
• 30 Jan 2026BFUAccidents and serious incidents in civil aviation in Germany, 2025 (Table C) (in German)
• 5 Jan 2026DFSAir traffic in Germany in 2025: more flights, good punctuality (in German)

2025

• Dec 2025BFUInvestigation report on a serious incident near Leipzig (Boeing 757-236 freighter) (in German)
• 2 Oct 2025CNNGermany’s Munich Airport closes twice in two days over ‘unconfirmed drone sightings’
• 7 Jun 2025BFU3rd Media information regarding the investigation into the accident involving the airplane Do228-202(K) on 10 June 2024 at Chikangawa Forest (Republic of Malawi)
• 20 Feb 2025BFUInternational Day of Remembrance for victims of air crashes and their families (in German)
• 31 Jan 2025BFUAccidents and serious incidents in civil aviation in Germany, 2024 (Table C) (in German)

2024

• Dec 2024BFUInvestigation report on an accident at Leipzig/Halle Airport (Airbus A300 freighter) (in German)
• 29 Nov 2024BFUMedia information regarding the investigation into the accident involving the airplane Boeing 737-400 on 25th of November 2024 in Lithuania
• Sep 2024BFUInvestigation report on an accident at Kavala, Greece (Airbus A320) (in German)
• 7 Jun 2024DFSSafe airspace for the European Football Championship: drone no-fly zones over stadiums (in German)
• 11 Apr 2024BFUAccidents and serious incidents in civil aviation in Germany, 2023 (Table C) (in German)

2023

• Nov 2023BFUInvestigation report on a serious incident at Phuket, Thailand (Airbus A330) (in German)
• Sep 2023BFUInvestigation report on a glider accident at Gießen-Wieseck gliding site (in German)
• Jul 2023BFUInvestigation report on a serious incident involving an Airbus A340-600 over Clariden, Switzerland (in German)
• May 2023BFUInvestigation report on a helicopter accident at Heidehöfe, Munster Nord training area (EC 135) (in German)
• 9 Jan 2023BFUAccidents and serious incidents in civil aviation in Germany, 2022 (Table C) (in German)

Photo list

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. German statistics are often published separately by each federal state (Land) and some only in German, so we say which area and period each figure covers and translate titles. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.