Aviation passenger safety has improved dramatically and at a steady rate over the past five decades, with the risk of dying on a scheduled passenger flight declining about 50 percent in each 10-year period, according to a study by U.S. researchers.1
Focusing on the most recent five-year period from 2018 through 2022, the worldwide death risk per boarding2 was one in 13.7 million, according to the study by Arnold Barnett and Jan Reig Torra of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their report on the study was published in the August issue of the Journal of Air Transport Management.
The one in 13.7 million rate is 42 percent lower than the 2008–2017 risk of one in 7.9 million. In comparison, the rate for 1998–2007 was one in 2.7 million; for 1988–1997, one in 1.3 million; for 1978–1987, one in 750,000; and for 1968–1977, 1 in 350,00.
Overall, since the 1960s, the global passenger death risk from accidents and delibe…
