Commercial air travel had best ever year for safety in 2017
Commercial air travel worldwide recorded its best ever year for safety in 2017.
Out of an estimated 36.8 million flights, there were just 10 accidents resulting in fatalities.
Only five involved commercial passenger planes while the other five came from cargo flights.
That resulted in a total of 44 deaths, also a record low, according to Aviation Safety Network (ASN) data.
All the deaths on scheduled passenger flights were on small planes or turboprop aircraft and included the December 31 crash in Costa Rica which killed 10 Americans.
In 2016 there were more than 300 fatalities resulting from 16 accidents.
"Given the expected worldwide air traffic of about 36,800,000 flights, the accident rate is one fatal passenger flight accident per 7,360,000 flights," the ASN said in a release.
"Since 1997 the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organisations such as ICAO, IATA, Flight Safety Foundation and the aviation industry," ASN president Harro Ranter said.
Almost 3.7 billion people flew in 2016, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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