According to world aviation officials, 2017 was recorded as the safest year in air travel. There were no deaths caused by commercial plane crashes last year.
However, the total number of people killed on civilian aircraft and cargo planes has increased slightly. The deadliest incident occurred in January 2017 when a Turkish cargo jet crashed into a village in rural Kyrgyzstan as it tried to land in foggyweather. All four crew members and 35 people on the ground were killed.
Over the past 20 years, fatalities caused by commercial jetliners have sunken steadily. In 2005, for example, over a thousand people were killed on board commercial flights.
Air travel has become very safe. It is estimated that the accident rate is at 0.06 per one million flights or one fatal accident every 16 million flights.
According to flight experts, chances are that the zero death toll on commercial airlines will not be repeated. Because there are over 37 million flights every year, some kind of accident involving the death of passengers is bound to happen in the near future.
The decline in passenger deaths is due to increased safety measures by the airline industry. Airplanes are becoming more robust and airlines tend to buy newer, more modern aircraft. But aviation officials are worried about the risk of in-flight fires caused by an increase in lithium-ion batteries that are being brought on board, mostly through smartphones and notebooks.
Among the world's largest countries, the UK has the best air-safety record . Since the end of the 1980s, there has been no fatal accident involving a British plane. In contrast, African countries have the worst safety records.