How safe is it to fly? Airline and airport safety information you need to know

IT’S the question on everyone’s lips right now; just how safe it is to fly? Here are the mind-boggling airline statistics you just have to know.

IT’S the question on everyone’s lips right now, especially in light of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Just how safe it is to fly?

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released mind-boggling statistics about commercial aviation safety, which highlight just how incredibly rare it is to die on board a flight.

More than 3 BILLION passengers travelled on 36 million flights in 2013, according to the IATA.

Throughout the year there were 81 accidents resulting in 210 deaths overall, a fatality rate which is half of what was recorded in 2012 (where there were 414 deaths).

That’s a rate of 0.007 fatalities on planes per 100,000 passengers. In comparison, it’s much more dangerous to drive in Australia, with 5.2 deaths per 100,000 people on our roads in 2013 (with a total of 1193 lives lost over the year on our roads).

It means that you’re 740 times more likely to die on our nation’s roads than in the skies.

According to the IATA it’s also becoming safer to fly on African airlines, with the accident rate in the region halving last year: there were 7.45 accidents per million flights in 2013 compared to 14.8 in 2012.

“We are seeing progress in Africa,” Tony Tyler, IATA Director General and CEO said. “But (its) overall rate is still many times worse than global levels, so there is plenty of work to do.”

THE LATEST ON THE SEARCH FOR MH370

Here are some of the most common causes of fatalities on planes:

Runway accidents

Runway excursions, in which an aircraft departs a runway during landing or takeoff, are the most common type of accidents, accounting for 23 per cent of all accidents over the past five years (2009-2013). However, survivability rates are high, representing less than 8 per cent of fatalities over the five-year period.

Loss of control in the air

While few in number, accidents involving a loss of control in-flight are almost always catastrophic; with 95 per cent involving fatalities to passengers or crew over the past five years. There were eight of these type of accidents in 2013, all of which involved deaths.

Impact with terrain

Controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents are also a concern, with six occurrences in 2013. They are often associated with non-precision approaches.