Copa Airlines safety record
Copa Airlines has had one fatal accident in its history, in 1992, and none in the more than thirty years since. Across all the world's airlines, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 13.7 million per flight.
Worldwide average for airline flights, 2018–2022 (MIT study).
Put another way: if you took a flight every single day, you would, on average, fly for about 37,500 years before a fatal accident happened to you.
One fatal accident, in 1992 — and none since
Copa's only fatal accident was on 6 June 1992, when flight 201 broke up in bad weather over the Darién region of Panama and all 47 on board died. Investigators found a wiring fault fed false attitude information to the captain's instruments, and the crew did not use the working standby instrument.
No one has died in an accident on a Copa flight since. Copa flies Boeing 737s from its hub in Panama City and is registered with IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA).
Every fatal accident, on one line
Solid dots are its own flights; hollow ones were flown by a partner or subsidiary under its name; grey rings are hijackings and attacks. Deaths that investigators don't class as accidents (such as trespassers) aren't shown.
- Jun 1992 CM201 · Boeing 737-200 · Darién, PanamaBroke up in bad weather; investigators found a wiring fault fed false attitude data to the captain's instruments and the crew did not use the working standby instrument.
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Copa Airlines in numbers
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Copa Airlines safety questions
How safe is Copa Airlines?
Copa Airlines has had one fatal accident in its history, in 1992, and none in the more than thirty years since. Across all the world's airlines, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 13.7 million per flight. Every fact on this page is sourced — the list is at the bottom.
What is Copa Airlines' safety rating?
FlyBud doesn't give airlines a made-up score. What can be checked is the record on this page and whether the airline passes IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA), which Copa Airlines does.
Has Copa Airlines ever crashed?
Once. Flight 201 crashed in Panama in 1992, killing all 47 on board. It is Copa's only fatal accident.
Where these facts come from
Every fact on this page is from the airline's own filings, the official accident investigation or the published accident record.
- Copa Holdings 20-F 2025 Founding, fleet
- Copa Holdings Q4 2025 results Passengers
- IATA IOSA registry IOSA registration (read 30 Sep 2026)
- NTSB docket Flight 201
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 201
- IATA IOSA registry IOSA registration (checked 30 Sep 2026)
- MIT News / Journal of Air Transport Management (Barnett, 2024) risk per flight 2018–2022
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