Can AI and automated planes help prevent plane crashes?

More than 100 people have been killed in air crashes this year already, including in a midair collision between a commercial airliner and a helicopter near Washington, DC, and a plane crashing into a bus on a Sao Paulo street. The fatal incidents in the first two months of the new year came after last year was declared one of the deadliest in aviation history with at least 318 deaths in 11 civilian airplane crashes, including two incidents in the last week of December. While fatal air crashes are rare, they attract extraordinary attention, often reinstilling the fear of flying. At least 25 million adults in the United States alone have a fear of flying, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The fear is often exacerbated not just by the crashes but also incidents like emergency landings, a door blowing off a plane and aircraft skidding off runways.