Travel Advice – World’s Best Airlines – and Airplane Accidents

For every year that passes, there is an average of 22 fatal accidents involving commercial airplanes worldwide. This number will increase in future as more commercial airplanes increases due to increasing number of travellers. Of these 22 fatal accidents, 50% will be caused due to pilot error, 22% will be due to mechanical failure of the aircraft, 12% will be due to poor weather conditions, 9% will be caused by sabotage and terrorism, whilst 7% will be due to other causes including other human errors.

But wait a minute, 22 fatal accidents in one year for the whole planet earth are very few accidents to bother you in your travel plans. The information on what causes aircraft’s accidents is summarised in the table below.

In an aircraft, the rear end is the area with the highest chance to survive an air crash – now you think you know where to sit next time. This may not always be true.

Scheduled flights are operated by airlines in large fixed-wing aircrafts and in strict schedules. Chartered flights are flights that are not operated by airlines but are hired by travel agencies or by other airlines to link passengers to other destination. In Scheduled flights, there is an average of 7 fatalities from plane accidents for every one million flight hours (this is more than 500 million kilometres). In Chartered flights, there is an average of 15 fatalities from accidents for every one million flight hours. If you compare this with the Road Crash fatality rate you will see that an airplane is far much safer than a car.

If the distance between Miami and New York is 1500 kilometres and the distance between Miami and London is 7500 kilometres, then the distance for 5 trips between Miami and New York will equate to 1 trip between Miami and London. The take off, climbing, descent and landing phases of a flight are more prone to accidents than the cruising phase of a flight. A plane that fly 5 trips between Miami and new York has a higher chance of being involved in an accident than a plane that fly Miami and London for the same distance. This is because the plane cruising between Miami and New York has five times as much take off and landing than a plane flying between Miami and London.

The fact that an airline is in this list of world’s best airlines does not mean it can not be involved in an accident tomorrow. Stop thinking about air accidents and enjoy your life to the fullest --- if it’s your day, then it will find you anywhere, including when you are asleep in bed at your own home.

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