This year, one Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared from the sky and another one was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
In July, an Air Algerie plane crashed in Mali, leaving no survivors.
Now, search-and-rescue officials are searching for AirAsia flight 8501, which is believed to have crashed into the Java Sea in stormy weather.
On the surface, 2014 appears to be a disastrous year for air travel. But numbers tell a different story.
, 2014 has seen just 19 deadly crashes involving commercial planes -- the lowest number since record-keeping began in the 1940s.
Overall, there were 112 aviation crashes in 2014, , another group that compiles relevant data. The number of crashes has been steadily dropping since 2010.
However, it is estimated that aviation accidents have claimed about 1,100 lives this year, much higher than last year, when 265 people were killed in plane disasters, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
The way accident statistics are compiled and analyzed differs among aviation groups. But most experts agree that flying is still very safe.
"The fact we have had cluster of incidents does not materially affect the fact that our skies around the world are safe,鈥� said aviation analyst Marc-Antoine Plourde.
He pointed out that tens of thousands of flights take off and land safely every day around the globe and that the rate of accidents and deaths is relatively low.
With a report from CTV鈥檚 John Vennavally-Rao
