American scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied the safety level of commercial flights. They concluded that the probability of being involved in a plane crash has halved over the past decade, reaching the lowest level in history. The study was published in the scientific journal broadcasting Journal of Air Transport Management (JATM).
The team analysed fatality rates in air travel in the 21st century and compared them with the rate of 1 death per 350,000 air passengers at the beginning of the mass air travel era between 1968 and 1977.
It has been shown that air transport safety has been steadily doubling every decade, from 1 per 700,000 passengers in 1978-1987 to 1 per 1.3 million passengers in 1988-1997 and 1 per 2.7 million passengers in 1998-2007.
Between 2008 and 2017, deaths in air travel accidents fell to 1 per 7.9 million passengers, reaching an all-time high of 1 per 13.7 million boardings from 2018 to 2022.
The researchers identified three groups of countries that differ in terms of overall flight safety. The first tier includes the US, EU countries, the UK, Australia, Canada, China, Israel, Japan and New Zealand.
The second group includes Bahrain, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Hong Kong (considered separately from China), India, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE.
All other countries in the world, including Russia, are at level three. But even in this group, the risk of fatal air transport accidents has halved between 2018 and 2022.
Earlier scientists I learnedAir travel in the Northern Hemisphere will become more dangerous due to climate change.
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Source: Gazeta
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