It is hard to imagine travelling without flying. As our travel and holiday destinations are located further and further away, reaching some exotic islands in the middle of the Oceans or getting from the U.S. to Europe (or the other way round) without air connections would be just impossible.
But two fatal plane crashes in June make me wonder if flying is still safe and whether it really is the safest way to travel.
On June 1, Airbus A330-203 went missing over the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. The plane carried 12 crew members and 216 passengers. The disaster, killing all 228 people on board, is considered to be the 21st worst accident in the aviation history.
The second plane with 153 people on board crashed yesterday (June 30) into the Indian Ocean, 10 miles off the coast, while attempting a second approach to Hahaya Airport in Moroni. Apart from the 14-year-old girl found alive, no other survivors from the plane have been found.
Despite sad news, flying still remains safer than driving a car or riding a bike. As the National Transportation Safety Bureau that investigates air crashes, reported around 770 million passengers traveled by U.S. air carriers in 2007, with a total of 44 fatalities in 62 air accidents. By the way of example more than 44,000 people died in vehicle accidents in the United States in 2007.
The chance of death from a heart disease is 1-in-5 while the odds to be killed in a motor vehicle accident are 1-in-100, and 1-in-20,000 as far as air travel accidents are concerned (for U.S. residents, based on 2001 data).
So I hope the numbers above convinced you that flying is still the safest way to travel.
For further information see
aviation-safety.net
0 comments:
Post a Comment