Southwest Airlines safety record
In more than fifty years, one person has died in an accident on board a Southwest flight: a passenger in 2018, after an engine failure. No Southwest aircraft has ever crashed with loss of life on board. On airlines like Southwest Airlines, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight.
For airlines based in the United States and the other countries in the same safety group, 2018–2022 (MIT study).
Put another way: if you took a flight every single day, you would, on average, fly for about 219,000 years before a fatal accident happened to you.
One accident death on board in more than fifty years
On 17 April 2018, a fan blade broke away from an engine on flight 1380 over Pennsylvania. Debris broke a window and one passenger was killed; the crew landed safely in Philadelphia. The NTSB traced it to a fatigue crack in the blade. It is the only accident death on board a Southwest flight since the airline began flying in 1971.
In December 2005, flight 1248 slid off the end of a snowy runway at Chicago Midway into a street, and one person on the ground was killed; the NTSB found the pilots did not use reverse thrust in time.
Southwest flies only Boeing 737s today, carried about 134 million passengers in 2025, and is registered with IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA). Accidents at airlines it later merged with — AirTran — are part of that airline's own record and are not shown here.
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.
- Apr 2018 WN1380 · Boeing 737-700 · near PhiladelphiaA fan blade broke from a fatigue crack; debris broke a window and one passenger was killed. The crew landed safely in Philadelphia.
- Dec 2005 WN1248 · Boeing 737-700 · Chicago MidwaySlid off the end of a snowy runway into a street, and one person on the ground was killed; the NTSB found the pilots did not use reverse thrust in time.
Flying Southwest Airlines soon? See the bumps on your route
Enter where you're flying from and to. The forecast shows where the bumpy stretches are, how strong they'll be and when in the flight they come, from global weather forecasts and live pilot reports.
The day you fly, in the departure airport's own calendar.
Southwest Airlines in numbers
What Southwest Airlines flies
Tap a plane for its own safety record.
Flying Southwest Airlines? Know before you board.
- ✓Which aircraft is on your flight — the exact type and its record, updated if the airline swaps it
- ✓The turbulence forecast for your exact flight, refreshed as new weather comes in
- ✓Delays and gate changes on your Lock Screen, before the departure board
- ✓Where you are in the flight, and how long until the bumpy stretch is behind you
Southwest Airlines safety questions
How safe is Southwest Airlines?
In more than fifty years, one person has died in an accident on board a Southwest flight: a passenger in 2018, after an engine failure. No Southwest aircraft has ever crashed with loss of life on board. On airlines like Southwest Airlines, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight. Every fact on this page is sourced — the list is at the bottom.
What is Southwest 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 Southwest Airlines does.
Has Southwest ever had a fatal crash?
No Southwest aircraft has crashed with loss of life on board. One passenger died on flight 1380 in 2018 after an engine failure, and one person on the ground died in 2005 when flight 1248 ran off the runway at Chicago Midway. This counts accidents as investigators define them; it leaves out deaths of trespassers and people who deliberately entered restricted areas.
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.
- Southwest 10-K 2025 Passengers, fleet, founding
- IATA IOSA registry IOSA registration (read 30 Sep 2026)
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 1380
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 1248
- IATA IOSA registry IOSA registration (checked 30 Sep 2026)
- MIT News / Journal of Air Transport Management (Barnett, 2024) risk per flight 2018–2022
Flying Southwest Airlines soon?
FlyBud shows the exact aircraft on your flight and the turbulence forecast for your route.