But There Were More Aircraft Involved In Fatal Accidents

Statistics released by the Accident Safety Network indicate that fatalities from commercial aviation accidents fell by more than 50 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, but those accidents involved more airplanes.

Forbes reports that, according to the Accident Safety Network, there were 287 fatalities on commercial aircraft certified to carry 14 people or more during 2019, compared to 561 in 2018.

More than half of the fatalities in 2019 came from a single accident, the Ethiopian Boeing 737 MAX crash that fatally injured 156 people.

But the statistics also show that the number of fatal accidents rose to 20 in 2019, up more than 30 percent from the five-year average of 14. Eleven of those accidents occurred in North America.

By contrast, 2017 was the safest year for commercial aviation with only 59 recorded fatalities. But that number may be a statistical outlier.

To put the number in perspective, worldwide there were 39 million flights in 2019, meaning that there was one accident with fatalities for every 2 million flights, according to Forbes.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report