After the next message about the plane crash all over the world there is a wave of aerophobia - the fear of flying in airplanes. People return paid tickets and change routes, believing that ground transportation is safer. But is there really a high probability of getting into a plane crash?
Number of accidents by different types of transport
To understand whether it is so dangerous to fly on airplanes, it is worth referring to the official statistics. In 2013, 31 air crashes were officially registered. It is important to realize that these tragic events happened not only with Russian aircraft, these are statistics for the world as a whole, and the number of these flights also includes cargo transportation, and not only passenger.
It is clear that the number of accidents on highways is much higher. Thus, according to official statistics, only in the first half of the year there were 62,984 registered road traffic accidents on the territory of the Russian Federation, that is, approximately 346 accidents per day.
As for the railway transport, the statistics are less deplorable, but the indicators are far from the aviation ones. So, only on the Gorky railway in 2013 there were 17 accidents in which 12 people died. Unfortunately, there is no general statistics on railway accidents around the world as a whole, but in some countries, for example, in India, the situation is much worse than in Russia, so it becomes clear that the number of accidents in absolute terms in air transport is much lower than the same indicator on highways or railways.
When analyzing disasters, of course, it is worth considering the widespread prevalence of cars. But the number of flights per day is quite comparable to the number of trains departing from the railway stations every day.
The severity of the consequences of the disaster on different types of transport
As a rule, there are no survivors of a plane crash. However, the same dry statistics suggests that this statement is not entirely true. In 2013, out of 827 people who flew on crashed planes, 311 died. In six months, 7,801 people died in road accidents in Russia and another 80,330 were injured.
As for railway transport, there is a high mortality rate in road traffic accidents at the level crossing, but in most incidents during the movement of the train, people receive moderate injuries and bruises.
About half of the plane crashes occur during the landing of the aircraft on the ground. Interestingly, the cause of about the same proportion of accidents is fatal pilot error.
What type of transport is the least dangerous
Insurance companies help to understand which type of transport is the least safe, because they constantly study the statistics of accidents on land, in the air and at sea. It is interesting that the lowest rates for insurance of goods transported by sea and air transport, that is, the probability of an unfavorable outcome is considered by insurers here as lower.
As for the passengers, they are insured at a lower percentage for rail transportation and during the flight by plane. And trips by land transport (personal and public) are considered the most risky of all possible types of travel.
