The most dangerous planes in the world have been named (11 photos). The world's worst plane crashes

About a year ago I wrote a post on my Facebook on this topic (), I’ll copy it here:

When discussing the topic of plane crashes or accidents, I periodically hear the opinion that in Soviet times, passenger air transportation was extremely safe, and then the USSR collapsed, chaos began in aviation, and flight safety fell sharply. Since I am very interested in aviation, I have long wanted to test this hypothesis and compare the safety of air transportation in the USSR/Russia in different years, and take the USA as a starting point. Now I finally got around to this activity.

For this exercise we will need: datasets (two); time (120 min.); Stata (1 pc.); Excel (1 pc.); and most importantly, manual dexterity (dexterity - 1 pc., hands - preferably 2 pcs.) and no fraud. So, we do the following:

1. Take here (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.AIR.PSGR/countries/US?display=default) data on the number of passengers in the USA in 1971 - 2014 and Russia in 1991 - 2014. Add from here (https://skorobutov.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/history-of-Aeroflot-part-2-3-1973-1983/) data for the USSR for 1976 and from here (https://skorobutov.wordpress. com/2013/10/21/history-of-Aeroflot-part-5-1983-1993/) - for 1990; Using two points, we construct a linear interpolation for the USSR starting in 1971 (not an ideal assumption, of course, but I haven’t found better data for the USSR).

2. We take here (http://aviation-safety.net/database/country/) data on all air accidents for Russia/USSR and the USA since 1971.

Note: Unfortunately, it sorts by country based on where the plane crash occurred, not based on what country the plane belongs to. So, for example, there is no Tu-154 crash over Donetsk in 2006. But, again, I have no other data, and manually sorting crashes is too long and boring.

Note 2 (I’ll take it from the comments): data on plane crashes in Russia/USSR from this site includes only crashes in the territory modern Russia. At first I didn’t take this into account, and then I didn’t have time to redo all the data, but I took into account the largest (about 20 fatalities) plane crashes on the territory of the Union republics manually. The remaining crashes with relatively few casualties are unlikely to change the overall picture; in addition, underestimation of disasters leads to an overestimation, and not an underestimation, of the level of safety in the USSR.

3. Clean the data. It will only take into account those killed on board the plane, but not on the ground (everyone can be taken into account; I don’t think this will change anything much); we remove all missing and zero values ​​of victims; we remove “criminal” categories (H1 and H2, C1 and C2 - terrorist attacks, hijackings, hijackings, etc., since they have nothing directly to do with flight safety); if possible, we remove private and military (for the USSR/Russia: Soviet AF, Polish AF, Russian AF, Soviet Navy; for the USA: USMC, US Army, US Coast Guard, USAF, US Navy, Mexican AF, Mali AF ) operators. For the USSR, for the purity of the picture, I also removed the Japanese JAL plane crash; I didn’t clean it further for the USA, since there are a lot of airlines.

4. Since there are still a lot of light aircraft crashes (just not private ones, but some OgOgO “Horns and Hooves”), we delete all plane crashes with the number of victims less than 5 (again, not ideal, but at least that way).

5. We group the data by five-year periods: 1971 - 1975, 1976 - 1980, ..., 2006 - 2010, 2011 - 2014 (for 2015 there is no data on the number of passengers).

6. Divide the number of deaths in plane crashes by the number of passengers (in millions). We draw this whole thing on a graph (at the same time we add separate graphs with the number of passengers and the number of deaths).

Now some observations:

a) While the airline industry grew in the United States and around the world, in Russia it collapsed after the collapse of the USSR and never recovered to Soviet levels (and this decline cannot be explained simply by a decrease in territory or population caused by the collapse of the USSR).

b) Soviet aviation was not distinguished by any exceptional safety: on average, it was almost four times less safe than American aviation.

c) There has been tremendous progress in air travel safety in the United States. Modern aviation in developed countries ah phenomenally safe.

d) If we look at the absolute number of deaths, then in general the trend for Russia/USSR looks even better than for the USA, but the situation changes dramatically as soon as we take into account changes in the number of passengers.

And finally, to the answer to main question: what is happening with transportation safety in Russia? In my opinion, the answer to this question depends on the angle from which you look at the situation. I will rely on relative, rather than absolute, death tolls as I believe they better reflect flight safety.

Note: Changes in passenger numbers do not account for changes in aircraft passenger capacity. Modern airplanes are much larger than their counterparts of 40 years ago, so today fewer flights must be flown to carry the same number of passengers on the same route. And the fewer flights, the fewer incidents, all other things being equal. At the same time, a single plane crash today causes more casualties than in the past. In theory, these two effects more or less compensate each other. But in any case, since the route network is constantly changing, I cannot estimate the number of flights performed from my data, and I do not have accurate data on the number of flights, so I work with what I have.

On the one hand, there really was a failure in transportation safety in Russia in 1991 - 2010 (1996 - 2000 were a pleasant exception); the country rolled back to the level of security characteristic of the USSR in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the same time, it is not entirely clear what exactly caused this failure: a sharp deterioration in the situation after the collapse of the USSR or an unexpected positive leap in security in 1986 - 1990 (most likely, both).

Moreover, the situation with air transportation safety in Russia today, although inferior to the USSR of the 1986-1990 period, looks significantly better than in any other Soviet period.

But we must still admit that with regard to the United States, everything looks very bad: in Soviet times, the gap between the USSR and the USA was much smaller than it is now; While air travel has become much safer in the US, nothing similar has happened here.

In other words, in post-Soviet Russia there was no progress in the field of aviation safety, which is typical for developed countries, and there was even a significant deterioration in the situation compared to the late USSR, but at the same time, even the worst Russian times are comparable to certain Soviet periods. That is, it cannot be said that in the USSR aviation was very safe, but after the collapse of the USSR something unprecedented began to happen.

Bottom line: in my opinion, the question should be raised not about how to return to the times of the USSR (because then they flew a lot and crashed a lot), but about how to get closer to the modern USA (because there are very, very many people flying there and almost completely safe).

P.S. It would be very interesting to look at this data in the context of individual airlines, but, unfortunately, there is no such detailed data on the number of passengers. For example, Aeroflot has not had any fatal accidents on passenger flights since 1994; Transaero has had no such accidents at all in its 24 years of existence; "Sibir"/S7 had only one such case (if you don't count the terrorist attack and the plane, apparently shot down by a Ukrainian missile). There is a feeling that the presenters Russian companies Now in terms of security they are not much inferior to Western ones, but in small companies it’s unclear what’s going on. But you shouldn’t take this as a call to nationalize and unite everything: it’s more likely not about the size in itself, and certainly not about who the owner is, but about the level of training (and salaries) of the pilots, what is the safety culture in the company etc.

The top-ranked Boeing 737 crashed in Kazakhstan last August shortly after the European Union banned Itek Air from flying to Europe due to the ship's poor safety. Then 68 people died in the disaster. According to BusinessWeek, there is one fatal crash per 507,500 Boeing 737 flight hours. Meanwhile, the oldest version of the Boeing 737 family is still flown by airlines in poor countries.

2. IL-76.

The Il-76 aircraft, which is most often operated by airlines in the countries of the former Soviet Union, ranks second in the ranking of the most dangerous aircraft models, which are operated around the world in quantities of 100 or more. There is one accident per 549,900 flight hours of this aircraft. There are currently 247 Il-76 aircraft in use around the world, produced from 1974 to the present day. One of the largest Il-76 plane crashes occurred in 2003. Then the crashed plane of the Iranian airline Iran Revolutionary Guard took the lives of 275 people.
" title="2. IL-76.
The Il-76 aircraft, which is most often operated by airlines in the countries of the former Soviet Union, ranks second in the ranking of the most dangerous aircraft models, which are operated around the world in quantities of 100 or more. There is one accident per 549,900 flight hours of this aircraft. There are currently 247 Il-76 aircraft in use around the world, produced from 1974 to the present day. One of the largest Il-76 plane crashes occurred in 2003. Then the crashed plane of the Iranian airline Iran Revolutionary Guard took the lives of 275 people.
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3. Tu-154.

Title="3. Tu-154.
The most common aircraft in most CIS countries, flying domestic and international routes, is also one of the most dangerous. For every 1,041,000 flight hours of a Tu-154 aircraft, there is one plane crash, writes BusinessWeek. Currently, 336 aircraft of this model are in operation around the world. Since 2002, there have been four plane crashes involving the Tu-154 in Iran. The last disaster occurred on July 15 of this year: a Tu-154 of the Iranian airline Caspian Air, en route from Tehran to Yerevan, crashed. 168 people died.
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4. Airbus A310.

Title="4. Airbus A310.
There is one accident per 1,067,700 Airbus A310 flight hours. Most major airlines have already stopped flying it, while carriers in poorer countries continue to fly the plane made by European aircraft maker Airbus. Among them is Pakistan International Airlines. On June 30 this year, an A310 airliner belonging to Yemenia Airlines fell into the open sea. 153 people died, only a 12-year-old girl managed to escape.
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5. McDonnell-Douglas DC-9.

Title="5. McDonnell-Douglas DC-9.
Airplane McDonnell Douglas, which has been out of production since 1982, is still used by Delta Airlines and many other smaller carriers. Meanwhile, one plane crash occurs every 1,068,700 aircraft flight hours. Last April, a DC-9 belonging to Hewa Bora Airways crashed in Democratic Republic Congo. 44 people died.
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6. Tu-134.
Into Russian history civil aviation Tu-134 entered as the most popular aircraft. Its production ceased in 1986, but the Tu-134 is still widely used by airlines from the countries of the former Soviet Union and in the Middle East. There is one accident per 1,087,600 aircraft flight hours. One of the most major crashes Tu-134 happened in August 2004. Then the airline plane crashed

Title="6. Tu-134.
The Tu-134 entered the history of Russian civil aviation as the most popular aircraft. Its production ceased in 1986, but the Tu-134 is still widely used by airlines from the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. There is one accident per 1,087,600 aircraft flight hours. One of the largest Tu-134 crashes occurred in August 2004. Then an airline plane crashed">!}


7. Boeing 727.

Title="7. Boeing 727.
There is one crash per 2,306,300 Boeing 727 flight hours. The plane has been out of production since 1984, and most major carriers have long since replaced older Boeing 727s with more modern aircraft. However, outside the United States, most charter interpreters continue to operate the Boeing 727. One of the plane's crashes occurred in the African state of Benin on Christmas Day 2003. Then 151 people died.
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8. McDonnell-Douglas MD-80.

Title="8. McDonnell-Douglas MD-80.
The McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 was created to replace the DC-9 in the early 1980s. Their production ceased in 1999, but the airliners are still operated by the American airline Delta, as well as a number of European carriers, including Alitalia and SAS. A total of 923 aircraft of this model are in operation. There are 2,332,300 McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 flight hours per crash. Last August, a plane of this model, owned by the Spanish airline Spanair, crashed on the way to Canary Islands. 153 people died.
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9. McDonnell-Douglas DC-10.

Title="9. McDonnell-Douglas DC-10.
The DC-10 is an aircraft whose safety has, on the contrary, improved over the years. With 153 aircraft of this model flying around the world, there is one DC-10 crash for every 2,908,800 flight hours. The aircraft is currently used primarily by cargo and charter operators. Wherein last plane crash involving a DC-10 occurred in 1999 when a former French carrier AOM jet crashed in Guatemala. On regular flights This plane is used by only one airline.
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10. McDonnell-Douglas MD-11.

Title="10. McDonnell-Douglas MD-11.
The MD-11, whose production ended in 2001, disappointed its creator by ultimately demonstrating poor performance in terms of fuel efficiency and other parameters. Meanwhile, 187 airliners are operated worldwide by airlines such as Finnair and KLM. There is one crash per 3,668,800 MD-11 flight hours. The last time a plane of this model crashed was in 1999. Then, a China Airlines MD-11 caught fire while landing in Hong Kong during a typhoon.
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It should be noted that the planes occupying the 5th and 8th seats are essentially one model, only slightly modernized, the same can be said about the aircraft in the 9th and 10th seats. It is also worth noting that among the safest airliners (without human casualties among passengers ), not included in the rating due to their small number, include the airliners Il-86/96, Tu-204/214, Airbus A380, Embraer 135/140/145/170/175/190/195, Canadair Regional Jet 700-900 , McDonnell Douglas MD-90, Fokker-70 and some others. Meanwhile, according to the Aviation Safety Network website, the most dangerous aircraft in the world currently in operation, according to a coefficient that is calculated based on the number of flights, the number of fatalities and the total number of crashes, is the Boeing 747. Next on the list are the Boeing 737-300/400 /500, Tu-154, Airbus A300, Boeing 757, Airbus A320/319/321, Airbus A310, Boeing 767, Yak-42.

Title="It should be noted that the planes occupying the 5th and 8th places are essentially one model, only slightly modernized, the same can be said about the aircraft in the 9th and 10th places. It is also worth noting that among the safe liners (without human casualties among passengers) that were not included in the rating due to their small number include the liners Il-86/96, Tu-204/214, Airbus A380, Embraer 135/140/145/170/175/190/195 , Canadair Regional Jet 700-900, McDonnell Douglas MD-90, Fokker-70 and some others.Meanwhile, according to the Aviation Safety Network website, the most dangerous aircraft in the world currently in operation, according to a coefficient that is calculated based on the number of flights, number of deaths and the total number of crashes is the Boeing 747. Next on the list are Boeing 737-300/400/500, Tu-154, Airbus A300, Boeing 757, Airbus A320/319/321, Airbus A310, Boeing 767, Yak-42 .
!}">


This article provides a list of airlines located from 50 to 60 places in this rating, in other words, the most unreliable companies, as evidenced by statistics on the number of disasters of their victims.

10. SAS Scandinavian Airlines

SAS Scandinavian Airlines is a multinational airline owned by Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The company was founded in 1946 to organize air services between the Scandinavian countries. SAS is interesting because it was the first airline to launch a round-the-world flight via the North Pole in 1957. Since the company was founded, there have been 11 disasters in which 207 people died.

9. South African Airways

South African Airways is the largest airline in South Africa, operating both domestic and international flights. The company has been operating for a very long time - since 1934, during which there were 7 plane crashes in which more than 300 people died.

8. Thai Airways International

Thai Airways International is the Thai national air carrier. The company is famous for having one of the longest non-stop passenger flights from Bangkok to Los Angeles, with a flight time of 16.5 hours. During the history of the company, dating back to 1960, there were 2 disasters - in 1992 and 1998, in which 215 people died.

7.Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines is Turkey's leading air carrier operating international and domestic flights. Over the 80-year history of the company, 3 disasters occurred at international flights and 18 on internal ones, in which 369 people died. The most victims were in the 1974 disaster - 346 people. Until 1977, it was a disaster with the most big amount victims.

6. Saudi Arabian Airlines

Saudi Arabian Airlines - leading airline Saudi Arabia, ranks third among carriers in the Middle East after Emirates and Etihad. The company was founded in 1945, after Franklin Roosevelt gave Sultan Abdulaziz Ibn Saud an airplane. During the history of the company, 10 incidents were recorded in which 653 people died. One of the most terrible collisions in the air occurred with the participation of Saudi Arabian Airlines in November 1996, when a Boeing 747 en route from Delhi to Jeddah collided immediately after takeoff with a landing Il-76 belonging to Kazakstan Airlines - in this disaster 349 people on both ships were killed.

5. Korean Air

Korean Air is the largest airline South Korea, is one of the twenty leading companies in terms of the number of passengers carried and occupies a fairly high indicator in accident statistics. Since the company's formation in 1962, Korean Air has lost 16 of its aircraft in airborne incidents, killing more than 700 people. The company's fleet includes 27 aircraft, average age which are 8.8 years old.

4. GOL Transportes Aereos

GOL Transportes Aereos is a low-cost airline in Brazil, dating back to 2001. During 12 years of operation, there were 2 plane crashes - in 2003 the plane left the runway in poor visibility conditions and crashed into a concrete wall - there were no casualties. The second incident occurred in 2006, when a plane collided with a private airliner in the sky, killing all 155 people on board.

3. Air India

Air India is India's leading carrier operating both passenger and cargo services. Air India was founded in 1932 and is a state-owned company. The fleet consists of 68 aircraft with an average age of 9.5 years. In total, 7 incidents have been registered in the history of the company, of which 2 were terrorist attacks, in which more than 830 people died.

2.TAM Airlines

TAM Airlines is the largest airline in Latin America. The company was founded in 1976 by government order, on this moment has 146 aircraft in its fleet. From 1979 to 2007, there were 8 incidents in which 344 people died. The worst of the accidents, which killed 199 people, occurred in 2007 when a plane skidded off the runway and crashed into an airline cargo warehouse. This accident is the largest in Latin America.

1. China Airlines

China Airlines is the national carrier of the Republic of China. The fleet consists of 46 aircraft, the average age of which is 7 years. China Airlines is the most unsafe airline according to the think tank. Over the past 30 years, 755 people have died as a result of disasters.

Aeroflot

Since 1953, there have been 127 crashes involving Aeroflot aircraft, killing 6,895 people. Aeroflot ranks 39th in the ranking of the most safe airlines the world, since Jacdec experts consider the company’s activities only since 1992 (after the collapse of Aeroflot of the USSR). Here it should be said that since the creation of Aeroflot - Russian Airlines OJSC, not a single accident has occurred. In turn, 4 accidents occurred with the aircraft of subsidiaries, which claimed the lives of 251 people.

I've been wanting to address this topic for a long time, and finally. I myself could never understand the problem of fear of flying, but it turned out that the problem is much more widespread than even I thought. They write that about 30% of the population experiences discomfort to some extent during flights. These are not necessarily panic attacks (although many have this), but may simply be anxiety or a desire to resort to side remedies to suppress stress (pills, alcohol). At the same time, statistics claim that 2% of the population refuses to fly at all, and many avoid flying if there are other travel options.

Frankly, I didn’t imagine that the problem could be so widespread. I fly regularly myself, and sometimes I come across people who nervously grab their armrests at every vibration. However, this behavior is quite rare. However, if the person sitting next to you is afraid of flying, you won’t be able to tell right away.

Today I will try to reassure such citizens somewhat, first of all, from a position of logic (what else can I do). I believe, that most of people are susceptible to aerophobia due to prejudice, incompetence and ignorance of numbers.

Why are people afraid to fly?

So, aerophobia has a psychological and subjective basis. I think fear comes from the unfamiliarity of the situation. For example, we interact with cars every day, and they have become something ordinary for us, and they are also quite understandable - four wheels and a steering wheel, you fill up with gas and it drives :) And there is also the illusion of position control, that I am a good driver , I know nothing will happen. Even without taking into account the fact that everyone sometimes makes mistakes, for some reason few people think about the presence of inappropriate people on the roads, and that no matter what kind of driver you are, this will not save you from a drunken idiot who is rushing towards you. red or oncoming traffic.

But the plane, it seems, is completely incomprehensible and unusual, rushing at incredible speed, I don’t understand where, at an enormous altitude. And nothing can be done (although nothing needs to be done). Probably, it is precisely this understanding that there is an abyss under you and the thought that if something happens nothing will save you, that leads people to aerophobia. And if the incident happened on the ground, then it will not necessarily end in death, they will still have time to help, etc. It seems like this is so, but the problem is that the incidents themselves by land transport occur much more often, and the number of incidents many times compensates for the lower risk of dying in them.

But all these fears would have remained, rather, in a latent state, if not for journalists (I don’t like journalists :)). If a plane crashes somewhere (God forbid another terrorist attack) - cases in themselves are very rare, as I will show later - then journalists begin to spin this topic for a long time and methodically, throughout the week it is in first place in the news blocks, and In the end, the desired effect is achieved - people begin to associate the plane with something dangerous. The seeds of fear that journalists spread fall on fertile soil (remember the fear of the unknown). The situation is aggravated by the fact that during a plane crash, many people can die at once - up to several hundred. This is not an accident involving a car, where 2-3 people die, despite the fact that there are thousands of such cars (seriously!) in the world every day. This is 200 people at once, what a tragedy (I do not rejoice and do not neglect the lives of these people, I just think that the issue must be approached pragmatically, and situations must be assessed equally).

Even if the planes haven’t crashed for a long time, journalists give us information to maintain the required degree. For example, you could disseminate research that describes the most safe places on an airplane, with the least likelihood of dying if something happens (does anyone really pay attention to this??).

As a result, people rush to choose a more reliable airline, study the statistics of air crashes by airline and by plane, wanting to find out which planes crash more often. This is an absolutely pointless exercise, and the probabilities, if they differ, are negligible. All aircraft and airlines, without exception, are subject to the same high safety requirements. And such activity is akin to checking what bus route there were more accidents in the city and they refused to travel on some routes if they found out that the statistics there were worse.

By the way, it turned out that enterprising people take advantage of these fears; they even sell courses on overcoming aerophobia :) Here is an interesting interview with the author of the course.

For some reason, few people think that aircraft are operated and maintained exclusively by specialists (and maintenance and checks are carried out regularly, before each flight). Unlike the same road traffic, where anyone can get behind the wheel, in any condition, on a faulty vehicle. But no, no one is afraid to cross the road at a zebra crossing; many don’t even look both ways.

In addition, the plane flies in almost free space, which means the probability of colliding with something is negligible, unlike, again, city traffic. There are no hundreds of other planes flying around the plane in the immediate vicinity, there are no reckless drivers there, no one is overtaking anyone or cutting anyone off. The movement of the aircraft is controlled by air traffic control services from the ground.

Air crash statistics

Let's look at the numbers. Yes, accidents with airplanes happen from time to time, like any other type of transport; an airplane cannot provide absolute safety. How many people die in these incidents?

I managed to find such statistics. Number of deaths from aircraft accidents per year, from 1946 to 2014.

The graph shows that the death toll has been decreasing over the years, despite the increase in traffic. What does this mean? Air travel has become increasingly safer over the years.

According to statistics from ICAO - the International Civil Aviation Organization - in 2013, more than three billion people (3132 million) were transported by commercial airlines in the world:

The previous graph shows that in recent years, between 300 and 1,000 people have died per year in aircraft accidents. Well, let’s take the maximum – 1000. It turns out that in the worst year, out of three billion, 1000 people will die per year. Or 1 person out of 3 million. In fact, even this figure is overestimated, because we calculated based on the worst year, in reality it is 1 in 8-10 million. This is the probability of dying while boarding a plane once.

By the way, many people are afraid of terrorist attacks on airplanes; even fewer people die from terrorist attacks.

But is this a lot or a little?

Even a train does not provide such a level of safety, where deaths are one and a half times more likely. In fact, this is only for passengers in train accidents, and if you take into account the cases of injury and death of people in a collision with a train, then the statistics are much worse; for example, only in Central federal district(population approx. 40 million) in 2012, more than 1,200 people died in incidents on railway. Yes, only 2-3 people a year die from being jammed by doors on electric trains (I haven’t heard of anyone being afraid to travel on electric trains).

If we talk about motor transport, then in Russia alone more than 20 thousand people die annually in road accidents (and 1240 thousand worldwide). More than a million people in the world per year. It turns out that about 1 person out of 6000. It turns out that in St. Petersburg, with a population of five million, 1 person will die in plane crashes per year, and about 800 in traffic accidents. Or, for example, 3-5 people will die from a collision with a moose on the highway alone. That is, it is more likely to die on the way to the airport than on the plane. But is anyone afraid to ride a minibus or cross the road?

(In fact, the above discussion about safety is not entirely correct. The mortality rate in road accidents is a thousand times higher than the mortality rate in airplanes for the reason that we use motor vehicles much more often. Here it is more correct to compare the specific number of deaths per unit distance. But here, too, the advantage is side of the plane. For airplanes this number is 0.6 fatalities per 160 million km. For trains - 0.9 fatalities per 160 million km, and for cars 1.6 fatalities. That is, driving 1 km in a car is almost three times more dangerous than flying by plane (not to mention two-wheelers, where 42 people die per 160 million km).

On the same ICAO website there are these numbers:

I didn’t understand what period the data was taken for, I assume it was for the last year. But the following figures are interesting from the statistics. Of the 54 accidents involving aircraft, only 5 (10%) resulted in fatalities. And we must understand that not all such incidents kill all passengers; many survive; There are also simply incredible cases, even when falling from a great height, for example, this one. Even in serious accidents involving impact with the ground, fire, broken wings and other horrors, the mortality rate is about 50%.

Is turbulence dangerous?

Many people experience unpleasant (psychological) sensations during turbulence. It seems that turbulence is much more dangerous than normal flight. But are these fears justified?

As you may have guessed, turbulence is not dangerous for an airplane 😀

Turbulence is caused by the heterogeneity of the atmosphere, passing through zones with differences in pressure, temperature, and wind speed. Physically, it will be expressed in some vibrations of the aircraft and “bumpiness”. Some degree of turbulence is felt on 90% of flights; if it were dangerous, planes would crash all the time.

It is worth noting that the aircraft will avoid potentially dangerous areas. However, in any case, airplanes are designed to withstand loads much greater than those encountered during flight. I came across a figure that over the past 25 years not a single plane has crashed due to turbulence. Regardless of this, there are statistics according to which only 6% of aircraft accidents occur during flight, when turbulence occurs. And we remember how relatively few accidents happen to airplanes in general.

The only risk during turbulence is the risk of getting injured inside the plane, hurting yourself or being hit by a suitcase falling from the luggage rack. But you know, you can hurt yourself on a bus, when you drive along an uneven road; no one frantically grabs the handrails on the first bump. Therefore, while passing through a turbulence zone, it is worth advising you to simply stay in your place.

How many planes are in the sky now?

The service flightradar24.com, which I wrote about in detail here, can answer this question. On the website we can clearly observe the location of aircraft in real time. You can search for specific flights.


The site claims there are just under 14,000 planes in the air right now. And these are tens of thousands of people. And 30% of them think that flying is dangerous)))

Let's sum it up

So it's clear that fears about flying are incredibly exaggerated. There are many much more dangerous, but familiar to us processes, which, however, for some reason we do not refuse. Flying on an airplane seems to us something special, non-standard and arousing mistrust. However, statistics show that this mistrust is unfounded.

And one more thing: I hope that the people who clap after landing (thank God I'm saved!) also clap when their bus stops.

Finally, I present to your attention some excerpts from the onboard safety instructions. Study them so you know how to behave if a critical situation does arise.