A series of high-profile plane crashes this year have left a lasting impression on the public.
There was the violent collision on the Japan Airlines runway on January 2, followed days later by the exploding door plug at Boeing Co. From lost wheels to a turbulent Singapore Airlines flight this week, the headline-grabbing events left the flying public wondering if it is still safe to fly.
The reality, statistics show, is that boarding a Boeing or Airbus SE plane is still exponentially safer than going to the airport. Last year, there was not a single fatality among the 37 million commercial airline flights.
Although 2024 does not match this record, it was a normal year in terms of aviation safety. However, public perception remains unstable. US web searches for “flight safety” reached their highest level in March since October 2014, according to Google trends.
That year a decade ago was particularly bad for aviation deaths. The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March was followed by the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in July and an AirAsia crash in December.
This year’s crashes have caused far fewer fatalities than in early 2014 or 2019, when the second of two Boeing 737 Max flights crashed in March, killing 157 people in Ethiopia.
Five people aboard a Japan Coast Guard turboprop lost their lives in early January when the plane ventured into the runway of an approaching Airbus A350. Although no one was killed in the Jan. 5 structural failure of a 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Air Group Inc., the crash was a serious blow to Boeing’s credibility and passenger confidence.
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Since then, a series of smaller incidents, from a Delta Air Lines Inc. Boeing 757 losing a nose wheel to a United Airlines Holdings Inc. 737 Max skidding off a runway in Houston, have received widespread media coverage.
On a flight from London to Singapore this week, a 73-year-old British man died of a suspected heart attack after the plane encountered severe turbulence.
“There is reason for the public to be concerned, but I think the concern is elevated because of the real focus that some news stations have given it,” said John Goglia, an aviation safety expert and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. “The wheel falling off the plane would never have gone anywhere; in some local newspapers it may have been a one-inch column.”
In fact, government statistics indicate that the US is having a pretty normal year.
In the US, there were 11 accidents and incidents involving commercial passengers or cargo flights in the first quarter, according to the NTSB database. This is slightly above the average of 9.7 in the decade from 2010 to 2019. Serious cases were four in the quarter, slightly above the pre-Covid average of 3.3. The numbers are based on cases investigated by the NTSB, which include all crashes and just some incidents, so numbers may vary.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration reported progress in one problem area. The rate of serious runway incursions in the first quarter decreased by 59% compared to the same period in 2023, a historically high year for such events. The current rate for 2024 is below the annual average of 0.31 per 1 million aircraft operations over the past decade, according to data provided to Bloomberg.
“Aviation is the safest way to travel, and that’s because we never take anything for granted,” said the FAA, responsible for airline safety in the US. “We are always looking for risks and ways to mitigate them.”
The spotlight extended on Boeing has brought significant attention to the plane maker, with some brochures filtering its 737 Max jets. However, many of the incidents occurred with older planes and are more likely to be attributed to an airline maintenance or operational issue than to the original design or build quality.
“In this environment, any operational event, no matter how routine, can receive outsized attention,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said at the company’s annual meeting on May 17.
Many of the events that have worried aviators this year, from landing gear collapses to pilots overrunning the runway, are classified as incidents rather than the more serious “accident,” which the International Civil Aviation Organization defines as involving a person seriously or fatally injured. the aircraft suffers damage requiring repairs or the aircraft disappears.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t improvements to be made, according to Loren Groff, chief data scientist at the NTSB. He highlighted work being done to improve staffing and training of air traffic controllers following some recent errors and near collisions on runways.
“Overall, it’s amazing that the U.S. aviation system, and most of the world in general, can do something so complex so successfully,” Groff said. “Would I be afraid of aviation in any way? No, absolutely not.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
