Last year was "the safest year ever, both by the number of fatal accidents as well as in term of fatalities," the Aviation Safety Network said this week.
Dutch aviation consultant Adrian Young of To70 told Reuters January 1 that "2017 was the safest year for aviation ever." Commercial jet airlines were not involved in a single major accident resulting in fatalities, according to a new report from To70. The rate of lethal accidents has fallen to one in 16 million flights, the report said.
Commercial passenger turboprop aircraft and cargo aircraft accidents led to at least 79 deaths of both passengers on planes and people on the ground, the report found. The study included the December 31 charter plane accident that killed 10 US citizens and two Costa Ricans after crashing into a mountain in Costa Rica. Bruce Steinberg, an executive at Bridgewater Associates, and his family died in the accident, Ray Dalio, the founder of the Connecticut-based hedge fund, said in a statement Monday.
— Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) January 1, 2018
By comparison, general aviation accidents caused 412 deaths in the US in 2016, To70 said, while in 2005, commercial passenger jet accidents killed 1,015 people globally, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
Highway automobile accidents led to 32,885 fatalities in 2010, while general aviation caused just 450 deaths in the same year, US Department of Transportation data shows.
