Are Airplanes Really The Safest Way To Travel?

You routinely hear the sentiment that airplanes are the safest mode of transportation. The idea of a deadly plane crash strikes fear into so many frequent flyers, but the chances of actually meeting one's demise in an airplane are exceptionally minimal. The International Air Transport Association crunches the number of airplane accidents every year, and in 2022, the number of accidents — fatal or not — was incredibly low.

The IATA reports that 32.2 million flights were flown in 2022, and of that large number, only 39 resulted in an accident. Of those 39, just five resulted in the loss of human life, and only one of the five was a jet, with the remaining four being turboprop planes. In total, 158 people died onboard an airplane. While this did increase the number of total accidents from 2021 by 10, the number of fatal incidents did drop from 2021's seven. An important note about the total number of accidents is that 2021 still was an uneasy time for airlines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in 6.5 million fewer flights than in 2022. Even with so many more planes taking off in 2022, fatal accidents were down. Based on the odds, the IATA estimates that a person would have to take one flight a day for 25,214 years to experience a fatal accident.

For the sentiment about airplanes being the safest form of transportation to be true, though, one must stack up the numbers against all the other ways we get around.

Let's first take a look at cars. Automobile accidents resulting in tragic deaths are a far more common occurrence than planes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analyzes the data for fatal car accidents, and for the year 2021, they reported that 39,508 fatal accidents killed 42,939 people. Auto accidents are more likely and deadly even when accounting for the number of cars vs. planes. 

Bicycles resulted in the deaths of 961 people in 2021, according to the IIHS. The National Safety Council reports that 954 died by train in 2022. Last year, 7,508 pedestrians just out walking were tragically killed, per the Governors Highway Safety Association. Meanwhile, these numbers are just for the United States alone, whereas the IATA's plane figures cover the whole world.

Now that we've covered air and land, let's move to the water. Recreational boat use may be the most common form of water travel, but it has plenty of risks. The U.S. Coast Guard reports that 4,040 boating accidents occurred in 2022, resulting in the deaths of 636 people. These numbers don't include commercial liners and are exclusive to the United States, like the land statistics.

The spectacle of a plane crash may be the most visually unsettling, but as these numbers show, the chances of that happening are far lower than just about any other major mode of transport out there right now.