Airline safety

A LITTLE bit of good news for the flyers among you. There has never been a safer year for aviation than 2011, according to Ascend, which provides information to the aviation industry. There were 25 fatal accidents last year, just below the decade average of 26.6. But the burgeoning number of flights means the rate of such accidents—one per 1.52m flights—was the best ever, marginally beating 2009's rate of one per 1.51m.

The five worst accidents—two in Congo, two in Russia and one in Iran—were responsible for 250 deaths, a large portion of the year's total of 401. This was the equivalent of one death per 7.1m passengers, a much better rate than 2004 (previously the safest year on this metric), when there was one death per 6.4m passengers (and 434 total fatalities).

Paul Hayes, Ascend’s director of safety, said in a statement: "Airlines are getting safer—and more quickly than they’re expanding. On average, overall airline operations are now twice as safe as they were 15 years ago."

Such statistics will be of little comfort to the families of the victims, but it does appear that their awful experiences are becoming rarer.