Flying feels riskier. Here’s what the experts say about that high number of accidents.
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After two high-profile commercial plane crashes at U.S. airlines this year, travelers have left wondering if flying is still safe. 

Statistically speaking, it is, but those statistics themselves can be a little confusing.

A cursory glance at numbers from the National Transportation Safety Board will show 67 deaths in commercial plane crashes this year – a huge upward surge after zero deaths last year and very out of line with the 10-year trend in which commercial aviation deaths have generally been measured in the single digits.

However, it’s important to remember that flying remains safe, and there’s context to the number of accidents recorded by aviation professionals.

Despite a recent increase in air accidents, experts reassure travelers that commercial air travel in the U.S. remains exceptionally safe, despite the high number of recorded accidents.

“Fortunately, accidents, especially in the past 25 years have been very rare events in the U.S. air carriers,” Kristy Kiernan, associate director at the Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told USA TODAY. “I spent 12 years flying in the Coast Guard, we would go a year without anything happening at all, and the next year, if we had one, it would be an infinite increase.”

There have been six air carrier accidents logged by the National Transportation Safety Board so far this year. However, not all six involved fatalities, and that number does not include small private aircraft, which typically account for the highest share of overall aviation incidents every year.

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Every aviation incident is different
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Airplane accidents are virtually never caused by a single factor, and it’s hard to compare two incidents, so looking at the overall number of accidents each year isn’t always helpful.

These are understandably headline issues. Given the number of people who fly and given the exposure that these incidents get, it’s not surprising that there would be some concern if not alarm about them, Robert W. Mann Jr., a former airline executive officer and current president of R.W. Mann and Co., an independent airline consultancy, told USA TODAY. “The accident rates historically and to this day differ dramatically by the category of flying.”

Aggregate data on airplane incidents often includes private, charter and general aviation as well as the commercial flights that the vast majority of people travel on. So, to get a real understanding of the risks involved in flying, it’s important not to take too broad a view.

“If you’re looking at accident rates and trends, you want to make sure you’re looking at something that reflects the operations you’re interested in. For most people that’s going to say the scheduled air carrier, which is incredibly safe,” Kiernan said. “There are numerous differences from somebody who is an airplane owner and goes out to fly themselves on a Saturday afternoon to when you get on your airplane at JFK. Differences in training requirements, in maintenance requirements.”

Unpacking the data
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The midair collision over the Potomac River in January was the first fatal plane crash of a U.S. airliner since 2009, but that doesn’t mean there have been no commercial aviation-related fatalities in nearly 16 years in the U.S.

In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul crashed short of the runway in San Francisco and three people died.

In 2018, a Southwest Airlines flight suffered an engine malfunction which damaged the fuselage, resulting in an explosive decompression of the cabin that sucked one passenger, Jennifer Riordan, partially out of the aircraft. She died as a result of her injuries.

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