What’s the deal with Airplane Safety?

A fear of flying is not unusual, in fact it’s so common, there’s a name for it.  It’s called aviophobia, and 1 in 3 americans experience it. But is there a need for this fear?  Is it common for people to even experience a plane crash in their lifetime? The simple answer is no, but what proves this statement true?

From 2012-2016, over 3.3 billion passengers travelled on the domestic airways.  So you may be asking, how many of them died? It seems like we see plane crashes a lot, but that just simply isn’t true.  In this time, only 2 accidents, both occurring in the same year, 2013. During those 2 accidents, only 9 people died. In fact, there hasn’t even been a commercial airliner crash in the United States since February of 2009.  Which is ironic, because most people won’t even affiliate with a plane crash some how, or some way, in their entire lifetimes.  

All in all, the main takeaway is that airplanes are much much safer than any of us could ever even imagine.  Especially commercial planes, which are all either turboprop or jet, are extremely reliable, and it’s virtually impossible for a jet engine to stop working unless some outside force acts upon it.  For example, in 2017, there were 0 deaths by commercial aviation. Almost 700 people were killed on a boat, 760 by train, and an astonishing 37,133 deaths on the road. Lastly, Dr, Arnold Barnett speaks out about airplane safety, saying that a person would have to fly once a day, every single day for 22,000 years before you would statistically die in an airplane crash.  Debunking the myth that planes are unsafe.