Your
chance was zero!
An encouraging statistic recently was released by the
National Transportation Safety Board: if you traveled on an air carrier in the
U.S. During 2007, there was zero percent chance that you would have died in an
aircraft accident. No fatalities
were reported for Part 121 (10 or more seats) air carriers during the year.
Operators of commuter aircraft also had no fatal accidents
during the year. To put this in
perspective one has to remember that this is out of a total of 19.3 million
flight hours and as a percentage it approaches….well…zero!
“In 2006, 42,642 people were killed in the estimated 5.973
million police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes, 2.575 million people
were injured, and 4.189 million crashes involved property damage only” according to a National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration report on the data from 2006.
Although immediate comparisons are difficult to calculate
without a degree in statistical analysis, it is obvious that travel by air is
easily one the safest methods of transportation.
The airlines, for all of their problems with perceived
safety, have achieved what any other industry would be proud of: a safety
record that shows a zero fatality rate!
Given the statistical differences between general aviation
and the airlines, general aviation still had an outstanding year for safety in
2007.
General aviation, that portion of the U.S. aviation
community that does not include commercial air carriers, accounts for nearly 20
percent more flight hours than do the air carriers.
General aviation achieved a record in 2006 as well, with
the lowest total fatalities in 40 years.
With nearly 24 million flight hours, general aviation’s
accidents accounted for only 491 fatalities during 2007.
What does this accident experience data tell us? That it
is nearly 88 times more likely that a person would have perished in a traffic
accident than in an accident in a general aviation aircraft.
Of course, this sort of analysis has to be taken with a
grain of salt.
Probabilities are one thing; what actually happens to a
real person may have a bit of a different flavor.
Various practical aspects come into play when a decision
is made to use one mode of transportation or another based on statistical
safety.
A 35 mile trip is not practical in an airplane, and a
2,400 mile trip is not practical in a car or even a smaller general aviation
aircraft.
The length of a trip, where it begins and ends, and
weather are just some of the practical considerations anyone makes when
deciding on mode of travel.
All-in-all, the recent statistics show an overall
improvement in safety for the carriers as well as for general aviation. There has never been a safer time to
fly.