It is common for those who need to travel by airplane to be concerned about their safety while up in the air. With worries ranging from mechanical failures to terrorism, fliers have a right to be concerned. However, there is good news to report as the International Air Transport Association recently reported that the number of major airplane accidents dropped by almost 12 percent during 2015 from the previous year. This is the equivalent of one major accident per 3.1 million flights flown.
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Tony Tyler, CEO of this group reported, “In terms of the number of fatal accidents, it was an extraordinarily safe year.” The group reported that 3.5 billion travelers remained safe on 37.6 million commercial flights flown during last year.
Drop in Fatalities from 2014
It is to be expected that when an airplane accident occurs, there will be massive casualties. During 2015, the number of fatalities caused from major airplane accidents dropped to 136 from the 992 deaths reported from 2014. According to the Aviation Safety Network, an organization that tracks airline accidents throughout the world, there were 22 accidents during 2014, with eight involving passenger airlines.
The numbers for 2015 do not include the number of passengers who lost their lives in the Germanwings 9525 and Metrojet 9268 crashes because they were classified as deliberate acts. However, if those deaths are added to the number of fatalities from crashes that were classified as accidents, the numbers still fall below the average number of 504 deaths per year for the past five years.
The Legal System and Airline Accidents
The National Transportation Safety Board is responsible for investigating every accident involving an airplane in the United States. Their team of experts will gather information about all details surrounding the accident. The information gathered is not usually admissible in court, but it provides valuable information that can be used by the family’s airplane accident lawyer.
Making the Skies Safer
It was a priority goal of the FAA to reduce aviation accidents and fatalities among U.S. carriers during 2015. The agency’s objectives were to reduce fatalities to less than 6.9 per 100 million airline travelers. For private planes, where the fatality rates are higher due to the smaller size of the plane, the goal was to reduce accident rates to less than 1.04 per 100,000 flight hours flown.