The Real Danger is When Driving (or Walking), Not Flying

You’d think that air travel is the most dangerous form of transportation. Indeed, the belief seems to be justified given the apparent increase in truly horrific airplane accidents around the world, from the Malaysia Airlines disappearance to the Malaysia Airlines shoot-down to the AirAsia disappearance to, most recently, the awful Germanwings crash in the French Alps.

That said, the facts and data analysis prove that you’re actually far safer flying in an airplane than you are driving or riding in a car (which helps explain why our Delray Beach personal injury law firm represents so many individuals who have been injured in auto accidents). In fact, flying in an airplane is the safest form of travel.

According to a report from the National Safety Council, your lifetime odds of dying (i) as the occupant of an automobile are 1 in 415, (ii) as a pedestrian are 1 in 749 and (iii) while engaged in air travel are 1 in a staggering 7,229. In other words, you’re roughly ten times safer in any airplane than you are walking around as a pedestrian.

BUT, our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers at Aronberg & Aronberg know it’s important to note that the 1 in 7,229 figure isn’t really applicable to you, as that figure considers ALL forms of air travel, including the far more dangerous non-commercial air travel, which most air passengers don’t use. Most air passengers rely on commercial air travel (i.e. regularly scheduled flights operated by U.S. companies including but not limited American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United, etc. and international airlines such as British Airways, El Al, Air Canada, Air France, etc.)

Consider this statistic: there are 0.003 fatalities per 100 million passenger miles on scheduled flights (i.e. commercial air flights), while there are a whopping 0.61 deaths per 100 million passenger miles in automobiles. In other words, you’re 200x more likely to die in a car accident than you are in an airplane accident.

According to a statistician from M.I.T., if you took one airplane flight a day, you’d on average need to fly every day for, oh, just 55,000 years before being involved in a fatal crash.

As our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers know, even in the very unlikely chance that you’re involved in an airplane accident, you’re chances of dying are small. The NTSB holds that the survivability rate of commercial flights is a high 95.7%. True, car crash survivability rates are even higher (when you consider all car crashes, including so-called “fender benders”), but given that car crashes happen so often, the smaller fatality rate still translates to far more deaths by automobile than by airplane.

If you have any questions about this safety issue or if you’ve been injured due while traveling via public transportation or on an airplane or in a car, please contact our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg by calling 561-266-9191 or by e-mailing us at daronberg@build.simple.biz to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to assisting you.

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