Technology & Innovation — July 9, 2013

Airline Crash Statistics: We’re Going Down!

Flying is incredibly safe.

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In the welter of sensationalist news stories rushing to cover this weekend’s catastrophic Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crash, the media has missed the forest for the trees. (Hat tip to my brilliant colleague Steven Mazie)

The real story? A new record!

When people want to diminish the likelihood of something, they call it “one in a million”.

But, with about 20,000 commercial flights a day, and the last multiple-fatality, major commercial airline crash occurring in 2001, that means that the current trend has the likelihood of being in a plane crash at around 87,600,000for the plane.

Given that only two of the several hundred passengers in this weekend’s crashed died, I have to say that I like those odds.

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