WASHINGTON, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Airlines recorded zero accident deaths in commercial passenger jets last year, according to a Dutch consulting firm and an aviation safety group that tracks crashes, making 2017 the safest year on record for commercial air travel.
Dutch aviation consulting firm To70 and the Aviation Safety Network both reported Monday there were no commercial passenger jet fatalities in 2017. “2017 was the safest year for aviation ever,” said Adrian Young of To70.
To70 estimated that the fatal accident rate for large commercial passenger flights is 0.06 per million flights, or one fatal accident for every 16 million flights.
The Aviation Safety Network also reported there were no commercial passenger jet deaths in 2017, but 10 fatal airliner accidents resulting in 44 fatalities onboard and 35 persons on the ground, including cargo planes and commercial passenger turbo prop aircraft.
That figure includes 12 people killed on Dec. 31 when a Nature Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft crashed minutes after takeoff into a mountainous area off the beach town of Punta Islita, Costa Rica.
In comparison, there were 16 accidents and 303 deaths in 2016 among airliners.
The deadliest incident last year occurred in January when a Turkish cargo jet smashed into a village in Kyrgyzstan as it tried to land at a nearby airport in dense fog, killing 35 on the ground and all four onboard.
The Aviation Safety Network said 2017 was “the safest year ever, both by the number of fatal accidents as well as in terms of fatalities.”
Over the last two decades aviation deaths around the world have been steadily falling. As recently as 2005, there were 1,015 deaths aboard commercial passenger flights worldwide, the Aviation Safety Network said.
The United States last recorded a fatal airline passenger jet crash in February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed short of the runway in Clarence Center, New York, killing 49 onboard and one person on the ground.
In 2016, 412 people were killed in the United States in aviation accidents - nearly all in general aviation accidents and none on commercial passenger airlines.
The last fatal passenger jet airliner accident worldwide took place in November 2016 near Medellin, Colombia and the last commercial passenger aircraft crash to kill more than 100 people occurred in October 2015 in Egypt.
UniversDesAmes on January 2nd, 2018 at 09:58 UTC »
I helped this record by not dying on my way to France
Grezmo on January 2nd, 2018 at 09:51 UTC »
Biggest risk in 2017 was being manhandled off the aircraft for sitting in the seat for which you had bought a ticket.
skiman13579 on January 2nd, 2018 at 09:21 UTC »
Lots of factors go into this. Many of the rules are said to be written in blood, for example cargo compartments didn't require fire suppression until after valuejet crash in the everglades in the 90's. Mechanics (like myself) are held to extremely high standards and regulations. I have the power to ground an aircraft by myself for any reason I feel necessary and cannot be reprimanded or face any repercussions from my airline. Pilot training is better than ever, and they also have the power to ground any plane for mechanical reasons and male a mechanic come look at it before they fly. Material science has led to production of much more reliable aircraft. We know pretty well how long a part should last before failure and many parts get changed and overhauled long before they actually break.
These are just a few examples of what has led to extremely safe and reliable aircraft. My airline has not only maintained a perfect safety record (so has everyone else), but over 99.9% of our thousands of daily flights do not get cancelled for mx reasons.
Flying commercial in the US is literally safer than walking.