Cape Town - The year 2017 was truly the year for air travel as it's been revealed that it was the safest year in aviation history.
According to the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), which records all air crashes and incidents reported around the world, there were just 10 fatal accidents involving commercial flights last year, resulting in 44 deaths.
This is down from 16 fatal accidents and 302 deaths compared to 2016. Furthermore, none of 2017's fatalities involved a passenger jet.
“Since 1997 the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organisations such as ICAO, IATA, Flight Safety Foundation and the aviation industry," says ASN President, Harro Ranter.
ASN says out of the 10 fatal accidents from 2017, there were five cargo flights and five passenger flights using turboprop aircraft.
Given that around 36.8 million passenger flights took to the sky last year, that works out at just one fatal accident for every 7.36 million departures.
See infographic below:
Further Findings
As of 02 January, it has been exactly 400 days since the last fatal accident involving a passenger jet (LaMia Flight 2933, on November 28, 2016, in which the Brazilian Chapecoense football team was travelling), and 794 days since an accident that claimed more than 100 lives (Metrojet Flight 9268, which came down on October 31, 2015, after leaving Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, probably due to a bomb).
It has been 794 days since the last accident that claimed more than 100 lives
Among the deadliest years in recent history was 2014, when 18 accidents involving commercial flights saw 961 perish (the two Malaysia Airlines crashes being the most high profile). More than 1,000 deaths per the calendar year were commonplace until just over a decade ago.
SEE: 6 of the deadliest airspaces airlines need to avoid
But the deadliest year of all time was 1972 when 2,469 people died in 55 accidents involving commercial flights - a number that's all the more remarkable when you consider how few departures there were compared with today (around 9.5 million).
A total of 11 crashes saw at least 100 perish that year, including four Aeroflot flights, and others involving Iberia, Sterling Airways, Alitalia, British European Airways, Interflug, Spantax and Eastern Air Lines.
The following year, 1973, saw 2,223 fatalities in 49 crashes. The carriers involved in the biggest disasters that year included Royal Jordanian, Libya Arab Airlines, Invicta International Airlines, Varig and Pan Am. And, of course, Aeroflot, which had a staggering 17 crashes that year.
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