The odds of dying in a plane crash are too minuscule to calculate, according to the National Safety Council. Conversely, your odds of dying in a car crash during your lifetime are roughly one in 95.
Regardless, there are enough news stories about emergency landings and technical difficulties for many passengers to wonder, “How safe is flying?”
Why People Worry About Flight Safety
Millions of people fly in the U.S. every day, but the country’s airlines often go years without any commercial airplane crashes. Based strictly on the numbers, your odds of dying in a commercial plane crash are very low.
Even so, the fear of flying isn’t irrational. There are several very real reasons passengers worry about flying despite the tiny mathematical odds of dying in plane crashes.
Number of Casualties
When a car crashes, only a handful of people are usually injured or killed. Moreover, only one person needs to die to classify a crash as a fatal accident. In other words, a car crash is “deadly” if one person dies but four others survive with minor injuries.
But there are far more car crashes than plane crashes on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. The low number of fatalities per accident, therefore, misleads people into thinking that driving is safer than it is.
By comparison, airplane accidents are often mass-casualty events. A Boeing 727 or 737 typically carries 120–200 passengers, depending on its configuration. When people read about these crashes, they might end up with the misconception that flying is more dangerous than it is.
Severity
Plane crashes seem unsurvivable to most people. Whether it results from a mechanical failure, a pilot error, or a collision, most passengers expect to die if their plane goes down. What’s worse, these crashes can also kill bystanders on the ground.
On the other hand, people get into car accidents all the time. The vast majority of car accidents only result in property damage. Even when those involved suffer injuries, they may only experience a seat belt bruise or a stiff neck. Consequently, many motorists believe that airplanes are more dangerous than cars.
Publicity
Millions of car accidents happen every day across the country. Most of these accidents aren’t reported on news feeds. People simply don’t appreciate the number of injuries and deaths that regularly arise from car accidents.
Conversely, a single airplane crash might dominate the headlines for days or even weeks. In these mass-casualty events, people see gruesome images of first responders recovering bodies from the charred wreckage. This sort of publicity makes airplane crashes seem more common—and more lethal—than the numbers show.
Factors That Affect the Risks of Flying
It’s also true that certain types of flights are more dangerous than others. For instance, helicopters and general aviation (GA) aircraft are more likely to crash than commercial aircraft. Thus, if you’re flying on a private plane or helicopter, you face a greater risk of injury or death than if you board a commercial flight.
There are many reasons for this, including differences in pilot experience and aircraft maintenance. However, the difference is stark.
How often do planes crash in general aviation versus commercial airlines? From 2010 through 207, zero passengers died on commercial flights. During that same time frame, there were hundreds of fatal general aviation accidents every year.
Contact Our Anchorage Car Accident Attorneys at Farnsworth & Vance Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
Even if you fly general aviation, your odds of dying in a plane crash are still dwarfed by the odds of dying in a car accident. Countless drivers suffer fatal injuries in traffic accidents across the country each year, while only a few hundred die in airplane accidents. The bottom line is that, whether it feels like it or not, you’re far safer flying than driving.
If you or a loved one has been in a wreck, call our Anchorage personal injury attorney at Farnsworth & Vance Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.
For more information, please contact Farnsworth & Vance Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation. We have two locations in Alaska, including Anchorage and Eagle River.
Farnsworth & Vance Personal Injury Lawyers – Anchorage
2525 Gambell St #410,
Anchorage, AK 99503
(907) 999-999
Farnsworth & Vance Personal Injury Lawyers – Eagle River
13135 Old Glenn Hwy, Suite 101
Eagle River, AK 99577
(907) 802-4097
