About the data and methods
An interactive map of aviation accidents and incidents investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board, with the investigators’ own findings alongside. It is free, has no ads and does not track you.
Where the data comes from
Everything starts with the NTSB aviation accident database, a US government work in the public domain. It covers accidents and incidents in the United States, its territories and international waters, plus foreign events the NTSB took part in as an accredited representative. This site includes 1982 to the present: 79,105 events with a usable location.
The NTSB file used here is dated October 1, 2026 and was processed on October 20, 2026. The most recent accident in it happened on September 26, 2026. Recent events are usually preliminary and can be revised or added later.
Accidents from 1982 to 2007 come from the NTSB’s separate archive file. They are less complete: roughly a fifth have no coordinates and are not shown, and older records carry fewer coded findings and conditions.
What is in each record
Every accident has a date, a place, the aircraft, injury counts and damage. For accidents with a fatal or serious injury the NTSB’s own summary and probable cause are shown (15,401 of them). For the rest, the NTSB’s coded sequence of events, findings and weather conditions are shown where they exist.
What this site adds
Wikipedia introductions and photos are shown for 844 notable accidents. They are matched to NTSB events by date and location with a simple rule, so a match can occasionally be wrong; each one credits its source, licence and authors.
The NTSB database is thin outside the US, so 651 notable accidents elsewhere are added from Wikidata and Wikipedia. They carry less detail than NTSB records (no aircraft type, phase or cause, only a recorded death count) and are matched against NTSB events so nothing appears twice. Shootdowns, bombings and hijackings are left out.
Phase of flight and main cause are grouped from the NTSB’s own coding, and aircraft makers are merged (so “Robinson Helicopter Company” and “Robinson” count as one). These groupings are ours and are only as complete as the NTSB’s coding. Phase is missing for some events and cause for more.
How to read the numbers
These are counts of recorded accidents, not risk rates. The data has no flight hours, so a state or aircraft near the top mostly reflects how much flying happens there. The database is also heavily US-focused and is not a complete record of accidents worldwide.
“Fatal” means at least one person died. “Serious” means at least one serious injury and no deaths. “Other” means neither. “Killed” totals every fatality recorded for the event.
What is left out
Names and addresses of aircraft owners and operators, crew details, and the registration marks of private aircraft are not published here. Accidents before 1982 are not included, and events with no recorded location cannot be placed on the map.
Privacy
No accounts, no cookies, no analytics and no ads. Your map style and view are remembered in your browser only. If you tap “Show my location” the position is used on your device to centre the map and is never sent anywhere.
Like any web map, loading it contacts the map tile server (OpenFreeMap) and, for photos, Wikimedia, which can see your IP address.
Credits and licences
Accident data: NTSB, public domain. Event write-ups and photos: Wikipedia text under CC BY-SA 4.0, identifiers from Wikidata (CC0), each photo under the licence on its Wikimedia Commons page. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, OpenMapTiles, OpenFreeMap. Rendering: MapLibre GL JS.
