Dark series of events for international flights: What is happening in the sky?

It is a rare phenomenon, but a series of air accidents worldwide marked the last days of 2024. Ten members of the same family died on Dec. 23 after a small plane crashed in Gramado, Brazil. On Dec. 25, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane, according to Baku, was reportedly hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile over Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechen Republic, and crashed in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 and leaving 29 survivors.On Sunday, a Jeju Air flight in South Korea suffered a bird strike – when birds crash into an aircraft – combined with adverse weather conditions during landing, resulting in 179 fatalities. Two crew members miraculously survived. It was the worst air disaster in the country's history. On the same day, a small tour plane crashed off the coast of Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, killing its pilot...