I despise flying. I am going to be doing regular back and forth flying from Seattle to Dallas for the next few months.
It is a direct 3 hr 50 min flight. I have been only flying on American Airlines… But I have been seeing so many things in the news about crashes and air safety… It’s been scaring me, especially since I bring my son along.
But it is the fastest and easiest way to travel, it would take too much out of me to go by train or car every other week.
Does anyone know the actual statistics of which method of travel is the safest? What are the actual numbers for deaths or accidents per year by train or air or car?
Also, is there any specific airline know for their safety? Also, is there a specific time of day or night that plane crashes are more likely to happen?
#1 by JIM on September 16th, 2011
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I would say if you’re so paranoid about flying, you should take the train.
Reason is you could become so panicky on flights, you could become a danger to other passengers and the crew
#2 by TitoBob on September 16th, 2011
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You see so many things in the news about plane crashes because of three main things: there are a lot more planes in the sky than ever before; a plane crash is big news to the media; a plane crash has a lot more impact on people who witness it or find out about it, because of the greater number of deaths and probability of death than most highway or railroad crashes. However, in terms of vehicle miles traveled, you are far more likely to die on the road than with any other form of public transportation; statistically, flying is the safest way to travel.
#3 by Jimmbbo on September 16th, 2011
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You are 318 times more likely to be killed in a car than in an airliner, but you jump in a car without a worry…
Any US airlines is the safest means of transportation in the history of man.
#4 by skyking on September 16th, 2011
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Hi: Statistically, flying is the safest mode of transportation there is next to walking!
The airline with the overall best safety record i believe is still EL-AL, but all US airlines with the exception of Alaska Air are very safe.
Alaska air has the worst US safety record and the most FAA reported violations.
Night has the highest rate of incidents but that applies to cars also.
Bottom line, don’t worry.
EDIT: Alaska airlines has had the most incidents resulting in injuries not necessarily the most number of incidents.
Hope this helps
#5 by Nathan on September 16th, 2011
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The previous answer was correct in that airplane accidents make big news headlines, so you are likely to see them in the news every time they happen. But Commercial Air travel is still by far the safest way to travel. As for number of deaths in cars every year, the wikipedia link is below. In 2009 alone there was over 43,000 deaths in the US related to automobile crashes. Compare this to 0 deaths on US commercial aviation in 2007 and 2008. 2009 had the crash in Buffalo with 50 fatalities. I couldn’t find deaths by train travel because in the US train travel is so rare. (Many European countries though have gotten the accident rate in commercial train service close to the accident rate in airplanes).
#6 by Nick on September 16th, 2011
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I would personally say there is nothing to worry about but…
There are the simple points; the less you spend on a flight, the more likely you are to be on a plane that is owned by a company who is cutting costs, and we all know what cutting costs leads to.
Apparently, american airlines has had the worst history from 1970 with 13 crashes, but they are the most frequently used airline so its understandable.
Southwest hasn’t had a single crash since they was founded in 1971 although they have had 15million+ flights, but they have flown aircraft that are not airworthy and been fined.
Check this website as it has information on aircraft crashes (and how unlikely they are): http://www.airsafe.com/airline.htm
#7 by Dennis M on September 16th, 2011
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One quick complaint and I’ll get to your question. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t answer it. There have been some good answers so far, but most are just awful.
I posted two links below for you to look at. One is to the ntsb website, they collect data on every aviation accident. I gave you a link to their statistics page, read through it and see what conclusions you can come up with. The other link is to a report put out in 2008 by Boeing. Obviously, they have a reason to publish something like this, so keep that in mind when you are reading it, but look at the data they provide and the general trend of accidents of US carriers. For both sites, you need to only be concerned with part 121 flights (that means section 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 121. It is a really fancy way of saying commercial airlines)
I want you to read through those two sites before you go on with my answer, draw your own conclusions and come back and read my thoughts on what this all means.
The first thing I get from this is there is no good way to compare the statistics. This can be the statistics between commercial airlines and general aviation (thats my line of work) or flying to driving. You could compare accidents to miles, but an airplane obviously flies much faster and covers many more miles than a car does, so thats not fair. You could compare hours, but cars sit in traffic for long periods of time, or drive so slow at times a head on collision wouldn’t do much more than bend up some metal and everyone walks away unharmed. Comparing flying to driving is comparing apples to oranges. You can use different measurements to get very different comparisons, and you can make driving look as safe as flying on paper if you get creative enough.
Look at the Boeing report, page 19. The raw data is kind of ambiguious, you have to remember just one accident can kill hundreds at a time, look at 1985. 1200 people died on commercial airline flights that year, and in 84 almost 0 died. So the rate becomes very important. How many accidents happened per million departures. The graph is set up in a way that it looks like it has became amazingly safe. Including accident stats from the early 60′s stretchs the graph and makes it look the way it does. Since the mid 80′s everything has remained about the same, with a fatal accident rate being about one per million departures. Put that into terms of driving, for every million times people leave their house, one will die in an accident. One in a million is not bad odds.
Now look at page 20, look at the insert on the top right. US and Canadian airlines are far safer than those of the rest of the world. If you have one in a million odds just right off the bat, and then fly a US or Canadian airline who’s record is twice as good as the rest of the world, now what do you think your odds are?
There is a risk to flying, I’m not going to tell you there isn’t. I wouldn’t take a car over flying just to be safe, that is irrational. It only feels safer because you are comfortable with driving. It is a comfort thing, not a safety thing you’re fighting with.
You have highly trained pilots, between the two of them on a major airline, you probably have 15,000 hours of experience. How many hours of experience do you have driving? A good average number to use is 100 hours per 30,000 miles of average driving. Unless you are a professional driver I bet you are no where near half that. How many of your driving hours are intense training? How many of them are any kind of training? Maybe you are a professional driver and have been through a lot of classes, but the mom in the minivan in the lane next to you hasn’t had the same training and can really screw up your day. The aircraft are mantained amazingly well, even the “poorly” mantained ones are taken care of much better than most every car on the road.
Bottom line, it is very safe. You won’t find a safer way to get from point A to point B. There is still risk involved, but there are risks in life.
Alaska airlines is not a bad airline, if you have some specific evidence, please show it. Flying in Alaska is more dangerous, simply because of the type of flying they do out there. It doesn’t apply to this question, as airlines don’t fall into the staticstic, so the point is moot.