So, first I hope this question fits this sub. I’ve often heard that sentance. But how has it been determined?
Like, is it just about the raw number of deaths? In which case, the argument doesn’t exactly land well since we’re in planes a very small part of our lives.
Or has it been calculated that on average, a second spent on a plane is safer than a second spent in a car? In which case it would truly be safer.
In: Other
In the contiguous US, the most recent major airline crash to kill passengers was in 2013; last to kill all onboard was in 2009: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft_in_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft_in_the_United_States)
They has not been a fatality among passengers of U.S. Scheduled Air Carriers (What you normally travel on) since…..
2009
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. ZERO.
In that period something like 300,000 people died driving on U.S. roads.
You can relax now.
It depends on how you look at it, as you said. The number of passengers delivered safely when compared to the total distance travelled is very high. In that way it’s the safest.
From another perspective, when something goes seriously wrong, far more people die than would be the average in a car. I could perhaps survive ten car crashes. It’s unlikely I’d survive even one plane crash, and planes carry way more people on average.
Which is intuitively more safe:
A carriage that moves through the air where it is really difficult to accidentally hit anything or anyone. The drivers are highly trained, there are at minimum 2.
A carriage on rails where something or someone can cross those tracks, but it’s rare. The drivers are highly trained, there may be more than 1.
A carriage that floats but can contact other things in the sea. The drivers are highly trained, there are many.
A carriage that regularly travels freely in highly urban and densely populated areas that comes into inches of contact with hundreds of other carriages and people every single trip. The drivers are trained and only a limited number of people can drive them. The speed is limited and the drivers are trained to drive specific routes. There is 1 driver who is switched out after a certain amount of time when tired.
A carriage that regularly travels freely in highly urban and densely populated areas that comes into inches of contact with hundreds of other carriages and people every single trip. The drivers have received training which may be out of date, but use of them is so commonplace and holding a licence is seen as a necessity rather then a luxury so much so that people take basic safety measures like seatbelts and not being drunk for granted. Drivers can drive at any levels of tiredness unless caught and stopped by the police.
Yes they are. When planes fail it’s news because of how rare it is. It’s hard to overstate the aviation industries safety numbers
That said car safety isn’t one flat statistic. You have a ton of influence as to the safety of your drive. Where you live and drive matter too. Person A driving very defensively in the suburbs in a Tahoe is far less likely to die than Person B as an aggressive driver in the city in a Mustang for example. Yes morons can still crash into you but an attentive defensive driver can reduce the risk substantially. If you drive predicably and defensively you’re increasing the safety of your ride
Elevators are the safest
Commercial airlines are the second safest
Private aircraft though- not so safe
Worst is probably horseback then motorcycles
Rules and regulations of air travel are written in blood. If the automobile industry and its users had to follow the same standards the air industry did then cars would be just as safe. Mind you maybe only 10% of the people driving now would qualify, but maybe that’s a good thing.
If instead of counting passengers you counted miles of human carrying vehicles it’d probably be large ships.
I’m an airline pilot so here’s my perspective. Yes aviation is very unforgiving and things can become fatal very quickly. That said there’s an industry saying of laws, procedures, policies etc being “written in blood”. Meaning modern aviation is built on a foundation of experience that was learned from deaths in the past.
The national transport safety board conducts thorough investigation into fatal and *non-fatal* accidents all the time. Their reports become
The basis for new laws, regulations, and industry practices. The results is that commercial aviation is very safe.
When you fly you have many highly trained professionals, from pilots, mechanics, dispatchers, ATC etc, who get you from A to B.
When you drive on the road there are brand new drivers, unlicensed drivers, drunk drivers, and god knows what state of disrepair some vehicles are in.
Yes because, every crash has been examined with a fine tooth comb, any safety issues rectified, every plane is built with as many features as possible, with redundancies for any failures, pilots are trained as well, and constantly tested, so yes.
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