India, July 24 -- The plane crash in Russia that is feared to have claimed 50 lives on Thursday comes barely a month-and-a-half after the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. Even before the July 24 crash in Russia's eastern Amur region, the year 2025 was already way above the past decade's average of deaths in air crashes per year.

The number of civil aviation fatalities in 2025 had crossed 460 after the Ahmedabad crash claimed 260 lives. The average over the past decade is 284, as Jan-Arwed Richter, founder of Jacdec, a German consulting firm that tracks aviation safety.

Now, if the Russia crash indeed claims the number of death feared, the total for 2025 will cross 500, which will be almost double the average.

In between, an air force jet ...