World Linker

We delude ourselves if we think that travelling by air is becoming safer in our modern age. The fact that aircraft and airport technology is more sophisticated than ever does not mean that air travel is becoming safer for you, the traveller.

Most people think of modern air travel as a routine (but cramped) method of travelling quickly over a long distance. Indeed, the travel industry is always keen to point out that air travel is the safest form of transport in the world. ‘You are much more likely to die in a car accident than in a plane accident’, they will insist. But they are wrong!

In fact, you’re about 12 times more likely to die in the air than in a car ride. Let us look at the facts:
• When the airline industry gives figures about its safety record, it quotes statistics showing that there are about
0.03 fatalities per 100 million kilometres flown, compared with 0.10 fatalities per 100 million kilometres for rail travel and 0.175 per million kilometres for cars. In other words, they are saying that air travel is about 3 times safer than rail travel and 5 times safer than car travel per 100 million kilometres of distance travelled.
• But these statistics are highly skewed. Typically, planes travel huge distances but 70% of aircraft accidents take place on take-off and landing, manoeuvres which represent only 4% of journey time and are therefore relatively much more dangerous.
• A much more realistic figure is the rate of fatalities per number of journeys made. By this measure, air travel takes on a very different complexion. Fatalities per 100 million passenger journeys are, on average, 4.5 for cars, 2.7 for trains, and 55 for planes! This means you are 12 times more likely to die on a commercial jet compared to a car, and 20 times more likely to die on a commercial jet compared to a train.