Airline Safety In The U.S.A.

You have probably heard it before that flying on an airplane is the safest way to travel that mankind has ever devised and its true. It may scare the life out of some people to even consider it as a means of travel but if you go by the numbers not only is it the safest way to get from point A to point B it is the safest by an incredibly wide margin. Its really one of those situations in life where the people who worry about it are really worried about the wrong thing. It is true that some years have been safer than others but even in the worst years for aviation the number of deaths relative to the number of passengers per year are very low. Below is a list of the last 20 years of aviation history in the U.S. It lists the number of accidents each year from 1987-2006 in which fatalities occured and then the number of deaths total for that year. (source N.T.S.B)

YEAR -----------AIRLINE ACCIDENTS ---------DEATHS
1987 ---------------------5-------------------------232
1988 ---------------------3-------------------------285
1989 --------------------11-------------------------278
1990 ---------------------6--------------------------39
1991 ---------------------4--------------------------62
1992 ---------------------4--------------------------33
1993 ---------------------1---------------------------1
1994 ---------------------4-------------------------239
1995 ---------------------3-------------------------168
1996 ---------------------5-------------------------380
1997 ---------------------4---------------------------8
1998 ---------------------1---------------------------1
1999 ---------------------2--------------------------12
2000 ---------------------3--------------------------92
2001 ---------------------6-------------------------531
2002 ---------------------0---------------------------0
2003 ---------------------2--------------------------22
2004 ---------------------2--------------------------14
2005 ---------------------3--------------------------22
2006 ---------------------2--------------------------50

P.S. -- 2001 figures include attacks on World trade Center and Pentagon.