There is a general misconception on the safety of Air Travel. Any air-crash is a breaking news and the media promptly splashes it on the front page with vivid pictures. This has probably added to the public's concerns. I recently came across this interesting statistic on air-travel safety.
The Wright Brothers flew their first airplane in the early 1900s, and the civil aviation industry took roots after 1915. During the 1920s, the first laws were passed in the USA to regulate civil aviation. Between 1926 and 1929 there were a slew of air disasters with an undue proportion of human casualties. The year 1929 remains the worst year ever on record at an accident rate of about 1 for every 1,000,000 (1 per million) miles flown.
To get the gravity of this statistic, based on the current numbers flying, this would equate to an unimaginable 7,000 fatal incidents per year!! The media space would then be insufficient to cover all of them. Fortunately, the fatal incident rate has declined steadily ever since, and presently the number of fatal air accidents has been no more than 1 for every 2,000,000,000 (1 per 2 billion) miles flown, making it one of the safest modes of transport.
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