2017 Was The Safest Ever Year To Fly With Not A Single Passenger Jet Crash Anywhere In The World

The calendar year of 2017 was the safest ever recorded for airline passengers.

To70, a Dutch-based aviation firm, released figures reporting there were only two fatal accidents, both involving small turbo-prop aircraft, with a total of 13 lives lost.

No jets crashed serving passenger services anywhere in the world.

The two plane crashes which occurred on New Year's Eve, a seaplane in Sydney which killed six and a Sessna Caravan which crashed in Costa Rica which killed all 12 on board. 


The fatal crashes are not included in the tally as both aircrafts weigh less than 5,700kg, the limit to make the report.  

An Embraer Brasilia operating as an air ambulance in Angola was the first fatal accident included in the report. Seven people were killed, including the patient, after the plane suffered an engine failure in October.  

A month later, a Let 410 belonging to Khabarovsk Avia crashed in Nelkan, Russia, killing six with a four-year-old girl as the only survivor.

And 35 died when a Turkish Boeing 747 crash landed in the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek.

A jet blast killed a tourist was killed when standing close to the runway on the Caribbean island of St Maarten.   

Adrian Young, who lead the research for To70, said the chances of a plane being involved in a fatal accident are now one in 16 million.  

Mr Young told the Independent: 'It is unlikely that this historic low will be maintained; in part, these very positive figures rest on good fortune. Nevertheless, the safety level that civil aviation has achieved is remarkable.

'The risks to civil aviation remain high as shown by the seriousness of some of the non-fatal accidents.'

The report also warns of the dangers of lithium-ion batteries and the fire risks they pose on board.

Mr Young added: 'Airlines worldwide are training their crews to fight any fires in the cabin; the challenge is keeping such batteries out of passenger luggage.'

In 2016, there were seven recorded fatal accidents where 271 people lost their lives. In 2015, 471 people died in four crashes while in 2014, 864 people died in five crashes.