ABSTRACT
The aviation industry is debatably one of the most precarious in terms of events or incidents that result in mass injuries or death. As gruesome as that assertion is, it is also, as frequently touted, one of the safest modes of transportation.
Fatal accidents to large passenger aircraft remain rare events. An estimated 7% growth in air traffic for 2018 over 2017 puts the rate of fatal accidents for large aeroplanes in commercial air transport at 0.36 fatal accidents per million flights. That is a rate of one fatal accident every 3 million flights. This years’ fatal accident rate is higher than the most recent 5-year averages (2012–2016: 0.31 and 2013–2017: 0.24).
Young, 2019